Thursday NIT Championship Game Sharp Report

Happy Thursday! Bettors have a loaded slate to choose from today, including the NIT Championship game, 5 NBA games and 9 NHL games.

For an updated breakdown of Thursday's betting action, be sure to tune in to the VSiN Market Insights Podcast with Josh Appelbaum. It will be posted by 3 p.m. ET. I'll also be joining The Lombardi Line at 1:30 p.m. ET, co-hosting Betting Across America with Mike Pritchard from 3 to 4 p.m. ET and then hopping on Rush Hour with Danny Burke at 6:15 p.m. ET.

In the meantime, let's take a look at where respected money is leaning for tonight's NIT Championship game...  7 p.m. ET: Xavier vs Texas A&M This NIT Title game takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Xavier (22-13 SU, 16-19 ATS) is coming off a 84-77 upset win over St. Bonaventure in the NIT Semifinals, winning outright as 1.5-point dogs. Previously, Xavier beat Vanderbilt 75-73, took down Florida 72-56 and edged Cleveland State 72-68. Meanwhile, Texas A&M (27-12 SU, 22-15-1 ATS) just crushed Washington State 72-56, easily covering as 2-point favorites. The Aggies also dismissed Wake Forest 67-52, crushed Oregon 75-60 and beat Alcorn State 74-62.  This line opened with Texas A&M listed as a 4-point favorite. The public is rushing to the window to lay the points with the Aggies, who are 4-0 ATS in the NIT Tournament and have won all four games by double digits. This lopsided betting has driven the line up from 4 to 4.5. Xavier has value as a contrarian inflated line dog in a heavily bet primetime game. Ken Pom has Texas A&M winning by just two points (74-72), which provides actionable value to Xavier plus the hook. Xavier also has value as a buy-low "bad" ATS team (16-19) against a sell-high "good" ATS team (22-15-1). The total hasn't budged off the opener of 137.5. The under is 4-0 in Texas A&M NIT games. Xavier is 2-2 to the total. The Aggies are on the slow side in terms of tempo (66.8). Xavier is slightly quicker at 68.6.