The Fairfield Stags will travel to Kingston, Rhode Island to face the Rhode Island Rams on Thursday evening at the Thomas M. Ryan Center with the game scheduled to start at 7:00 PM ET.

Fairfield is still a relatively new team at the Division 1 level in college basketball as they played their first college basketball season during the 2010-11 season, however, they have not made the NCAA Tournament since joining men’s college basketball. The Stags have qualified for the NIT once and have played in the CIT tournament four times. The Fairfield Stags, however, have also not had a winning season in college basketball since the 2017-18 college basketball season as they finished with a record of 17-16 that year and are coming off a 13-18 season which included going 9-11 in the MAAC schedule which led to a 7^th place finish in the conference. The Stags lost in the 1^st round of the MAAC Conference Tournament against the Saint Peter’s Peacocks by a score of 52-70 which was also their 4^th loss of their last five games to end the 2022-23 college basketball season. The Stags are 0-1 this year following a 70-89 loss on the road against the Boston College Golden Eagles on Monday while failing to cover the 13.5-point spread as a road underdog.

The Rhode Island Rams have one of the better coaches at the mid-major level, Archie Miller, who has served as the head coach for the Indiana Hoosiers and Dayton Flyers, however, in his first year with the Rams as the head coach the team struggled as they finished the season with a record of 9-22 which included a 5-13 record in A10 conference play which led to a 14^th place finish in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Rams would also go on to lose 9 of their final 10 games in the 2022-23 college basketball season which included a 1^st round loss in the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament against the Explorers by a score of 56-73. Rhode Island has started this season with a win against the Central Connecticut Blue Devils by a score of 81-70 on Monday at home.

BookMaker has the Rhode Island Rams listed as 9-point favorites at home against the Fairfield Stags on Thursday evening. Rhode Island has won two of the last three games in the series and has won by an average margin of 3.5 points per game in those contests. Both teams are 1-1 ATS in the last two games in the series. The Fairfield Stags are 0-1 ATS overall, 0-1 ATS on the road, and 0-1 ATS as an underdog this season while the Rhode Island Rams are 0-0-1 ATS overall, 0-0-1 ATS at home, and 0-0-1 ATS as a favorite on the year.

Neither team finished last season with a winning record, however, Rhode Island is the more talented team this season and should be able to get the win at home. However, I expect this game to be closer than the spread indicates as both teams are below average this season which is why I am taking the points with the Fairfield Stags when they face the Rhode Island Rams on Thursday evening.