Today's top picks: Xavier to cover against Texas A&M in NIT final, plus more college basketball, NBA and golf best bets for Thursday

Host Jonathan Coachman is joined by Mike McClure, Mike Barner and Alex Selesnick on the Early Edge podcast, powered by SportsLine. Get highlighted plays for college basketball, NBA and golf for Thursday, March 31, and you can stream the show live every morning on the SportsLine YouTube page.

Coach kicks off the picks with a pair of SportsLine Plays of the Day on college basketball. The first comes from the National Invitation Tournament, and the play is Xavier +4.5 against Texas A&M in Thursday's final (7 p.m. ET). Both teams are motivated by missing out on the NCAA Tournament, but the Musketeers are playing excellent basketball, and the SportsLine Projection Model sees a lot of value in the points. Xavier is covering in 69 percent of the model's simulations.

The second site play is Fresno State -3 against Coastal Carolina in the College Basketball Classic final (6 p.m. ET). The Bulldogs play in a tougher conference and are the better team, so they should have little trouble covering the spread against the Chanticleers.

McClure jumps in with a PGA Tour pick on the Valero Texas Open, which teed off Thursday morning in San Antonio. Mike likes Corey Conners to win a first-round matchup against Jordan Spieth (-105), fading the defending champion. "A lot of people will talk about the success he's had here," McClure says of Spieth. "But Corey Conners has had the same success." He says Spieth's victory last year was during an "absolute career peak run. ... He is nowhere near that form right now."

Coach also has a pick on the Texas Open, and he is backing Charley Hoffman -133 to beat Chad Ramey, who won last week at Corales Puntacana. It's tough to come off an emotional win and play well the following week. "Charley Hoffman at this event? Dominant," Coach says.

Barner is going with two NBA picks, and he loves the Bucks +2 against the Nets (7:30 p.m. ET). He also likes Milwaukee on the money line but will gladly take the points with a healthy Bucks team coming off a statement victory against Philadelphia. He also offers an NBA player prop, taking Paul George Over 23.5 points (-115) when his Clippers face the Bulls (8 p.m. ET).

Alex also is all over the NBA player props, and he has a pick that he loves, taking Philadelphia's Tobias Harris to go Over 8.5 rebounds and assists when his 76ers face the Pistons (7 p.m. ET). Harris had a tough time after James Harden joined the team in a trade, but PropStarz says he is finding a comfort zone. "He's eclipsed this prop in five of the last six games, averaging 11.2 rebounds and assists over those five games," Selesnick says, adding that Detroit is a great matchup for this prop to cash.       

Early Edge is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enable push notifications so you always know when the latest episode is available! Every episode is also available on YouTube. Follow @SportsLine on Twitter and Instagram  

Follow our crew on Twitter: @TheCoachRules, @Mike5754, @rotomikebarner and @PropStarz. You can listen to Early Edge on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Early Edge podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Early Edge podcast." For more betting picks and analysis, visit SportsLine.com. To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit CBSSports.com/podcasts.