Stephen Nover cashed a rocking chair winner on his Thursday NCAA discounted day game with Siena. Stephen has found a second straight early start NCAA Tourney winner on Friday's card looking to 18-10 on his last 28 college basketball premium/free plays.
Member Notes
Today’s Free Picks
| Sport | Game Selection | Game Time |
|---|---|---|
| CBB | (749) Central Florida at (750) UCLA | 7:25pm EDT - Mar 20/2026 |
The PLAY: UCLA -5.5 (-110)
UCLA erased any talk that it couldn't win outside the Pacific time zone. They did that by going 3-0 ATS, including beating Rutgers and Michigan State, at the Big Ten Conference Tournament in Chicago last week.
The Bruins are peaking at the right time going 6-2 SU, 7-1 ATS in their last eight games posting upset wins not only against Michigan State but Illinois and Nebraska, too, during this time frame.
UCLA has compiled the second-most efficient offense in the country during the past four weeks, sparked by elite point guard Donovan Dent, who has recovered from a minor calf injury suffered in the Big Ten Conference Tournament semifinals against Purdue.
UCF is going in the other direction. The Knights are 1-4 in their last five games. Their lone victory during this span was an overtime win against Cincinnati when the Bearcats choked away an eight point lead during the final two minutes of regulation.
The Knights have made only 19 percent of their 3-point shots during their last four games going 16-for-83. Their 280th ranked defense cannot overcome any offensive deficiencies. UCLA has held its last five opponents to an average of 67.2 points a game. The Bruins rank 67th in 3-point defense.
(Editor's note: Stephen Nover is 17-10 on his last 27 CBB premium/free plays and 15-7 on his last 22 NBA premium/free plays. Don't miss any of Stephen's basketball winners.)
Consultant Bio
Stephen Nover is unique among professional handicappers. A multiple award-winning sportswriter for numerous newspapers, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nover has one the best combinations of gambling and media sources in the world.
The author of two sports gambling books, "Las Vegas Sports Beat" and "Sports Gaming Beat", along with a book on fantasy football titled, "Winning Fantasy Football", Nover is a former professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas having taught a football handicapping class there. He also was the co-host of the Sunday night sports betting radio show "The Stardust Line" during the 1990's.
Parlaying nearly 50 years worth of professional gambling experience with tremendous knowledge of the players through elite deep-roster Rotisserie leagues and building on copious gaming and media sources - having worked for newspapers in the Midwest, South and West and also for legendary Hall of Fame oddsmaker Roxy Roxborough - Nover is a true Las Vegas wise guy. He helped learn his craft from such masters as Roxborough, Dave Malinsky, Lem Banker and Russ Culver.
Part of what makes Nover so special is the pride he takes in writing his deep-dive analysis, which always is unique, well-researched and sometimes entails out-of-the-box thinking.