Nevada is coming into this game with a 26-7 record this season and they were 2nd in their conference during the regular season at 13-5. Nevada fizzled out very early on in their conference tournament as they lost to Colorado State in their 1st round played, but they did finish the season playing very well and have still been a hot team coming into this tournament. They ended the regular season winning 7 straight as well as 10 of their last 11 games and they have been sitting on that 7 point loss to Colorado State for a week now so they are going to be hungry to bounce back here. They have a top 50 defense in the country for points allowed this season as they have been averaging 67.1 points allowed per game, and their defense has been great in their recent games as they have allowed 66 points or less in 3 of their last 4 as well as 6 of their last 8 games. Their offense has also been very consistent recently as they have scored 74+ points in their last 7 straight games. They are going up against a Dayton team that is 24-7 this season and was 14-4 in their conference. Dayton finished the regular season in 3rd place in their conference and also fizzled out of their conference tournament against Duquesne in the 1st game they played, but they still earned this bid based on their non-conference performance. They were not that good during the non-conference schedule though as their biggest wins came against LSU, SMU, and St. John's, all 3 teams failing to make this tournament, while they did play 2 tournament teams in Northwestern and Houston but lost both of those games. Dayton has been an overvalued team all season as they were not even the best in their own conference as well as fizzling out in their 1st round of the conference tournament, and their defense has also been poor recently as they have allowed 83+ points in 2 of their last 3 games. Nevada also played in a much tougher Mountain West Conference that had 6 teams earn bids to this tournament and Nevada was still a dominant team all season while Dayton is lucky to even be here at all. Nevada is going to cover the spread in this game.