Today's picks: Why Cleveland State will cover, plus more college basketball and NHL plays for Monday

Jonathan Coachman is joined by standout sports betting experts Mike McClure, Zack Cimini and Larry Hartstein on the Early Edge podcast, powered by SportsLine. They dish out their featured bets for college basketball and the NHL for Monday, March 8. 

Zack opens with a futures bet on North Texas at +250 to win the Conference USA. He notes that the Mean Green have played well against Power 5 schools and they could also be a nice target for the NCAA tournament. Larry is forecasting a very hungry Georgia Tech team to win the ACC. 

The Coach issues a pair of NHL plays, including the L.A. Kings -120 over the Ducks at 10 p.m. ET. He is also backing the SportsLine model's pick of the Canadiens -150 over the Canucks at 10 p.m. ET. 

Mike comes through with the first Horizon League tournament selection, going with Northern Kentucky -2 over Oakland at 9:30 p.m. ET. The Grizzlies are significantly worse on defense, and that will prove to be their undoing. 

Larry is on the top-seeded Cleveland State Vikings at -3.5 over Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the Horizon tourney at 6:30 p.m. ET. "They get a Milwaukee team that has had some unbelievable comebacks," he says. "But now we are going to a neutral site. Cleveland is 5-1 against the number on neutral sites. Milwaukee is 0-6  in its last six on neutral sites." In the last matchup with Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Cleveland State blew a sizable lead in a loss, but Larry does not see that happening again. "I don't think we're going to see that kind of a letdown today. Cleveland State got a pretty good wakeup call having to go to triple overtime in their last game." 

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