Look of the Day for Thursday, March 7: It's the Day of the Mastodon

Kyle Lowry was ruled out of Wednesday night's game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Memphis Grizzlies, so we ended up voiding our Look of the Day. That's just the risk you take with NBA player props. Let's make sure that doesn't happen again by targeting a college basketball spread for our Thursday pick. 

Look of the Day: Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons +3.5 (-110 FanDuel)

We're heading to the Horizon League Tournament for our favorite college basketball play of Thursday's slate. This is a matchup between the No. 1 seed and the No. 8 seed on paper, but these two teams are more even than the seeding suggests.

Oakland earned the No. 1 seed thanks to its 15-5 conference record, but it went just 5-6 in the non-conference and doesn't jump off the page statistically. The Golden Grizzlies are 140th in KenPom's efficiency rankings, while Purdue Fort Wayne is close behind at 157th. 

IPFW has the statistical advantage in points per game, effective field-goal percentage, three-point makes per game and defensive efficiency. The Mastodons love to push the pace and force their opponents into mistakes. They rank ninth in the country in turnovers forced per game, and they forced 27 total turnovers in two games against the Golden Grizzlies this season.

Purdue Fort Wayne beat Oakland, 98-77, on the road earlier this year. This is an underrated team that has a good chance to pull off the outright upset here.