{"id":77666,"date":"2025-12-09T23:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/77666\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T23:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:37:10","slug":"uconn-vs-florida-prediction-mens-college-basketball-picks-odds-best-bets-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/77666\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn vs. Florida prediction: Men’s college basketball picks, odds, best bets Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\tNew York Post may be compensated and\/or receive an affiliate commission if you click or buy through our links. Featured pricing is subject to change.<\/p>\n

Sports villains are not for everyone. Usually, they are tactfully considered an acquired taste, but mostly, the tolerance hinges on their success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Connecticut has won two of the past three college basketball championships<\/a>, and with that success comes love and appreciation for Danny Hurley.<\/p>\n

The fan base welcomes its emotional and volatile head coach \u2014 if he can deliver those types of results.<\/p>\n

Hurley and the fifth-ranked Huskies face 18th-ranked Florida on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

UConn is favored by 4.5 points, with a total of 145.5 points.<\/p>\n

UConn vs. Florida best bet, prediction<\/p>\n

The defending-champion Gators eliminated UConn in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year, snapping the Huskies\u2019 bid for a three-peat.<\/p>\n

Safe to say Hurley has maximum intensity on the sidelines, seeking revenge.<\/p>\n

Another layer is the availability of senior center Tarris Reed Jr., who leads the team in both scoring and rebounding.<\/p>\n

However, an ankle injury has limited him to just three full games and his status for this showdown is unknown.<\/p>\n

Hurley has been able to notch impressive wins without his services. <\/p>\n

Last week, UConn beat Kansas at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, although the Jayhawks played without standout freshman Darryn Peterson. Prior to that, UConn defeated Illinois at MSG without Reed.<\/p>\n

\"UConnUConn Huskies forward Tarris Reed Jr. (5) drives to the basket against BYU Cougars center Keba Keita (13) during the first half at TD Garden. Eric Canha-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Gators have lost most of their main talent from last year\u2019s title team but they still feature 6-foot-11 Alex Condon and 6-9 Thomas Haugh, who are the team\u2019s top two scorers.<\/p>\n

If Reed returns, then I believe the Huskies will notch a solid win. If not, I still believe Hurley will have them incredibly prepared and motivated.<\/p>\n

Betting on College Basketball? <\/p>\n

The Gators are justifiably ranked but they have some issues. <\/p>\n

They lost to TCU and while they only lost at Duke by a point, I think the narrow margin stemmed more from the Blue Devils relaxing after leading by 12 points at halftime.<\/p>\n

I have a 80-69-2 ATS record in this Post sports section.<\/p>\n

My next play is UConn \u2013 4.5 against Florida.<\/p>\n

The Play: UConn -4.5 (-110, BetMGM<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Why Trust New York Post Betting<\/p>\n

Doug Kezirian is a New York Post contributor who has over two decades of experience in the betting space, including spending 11 years at ESPN as a host, columnist and betting analyst. He\u2019s also the rare personality who has documented success \u2013 14th place in 2023 Circa Million and Las Vegas SuperContest ($37K), two top-10 finishes in 2022 William Hill College Football Challenge ($58K) and also grabbed headlines with a $297K win on the 2021 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Post may be compensated and\/or receive an affiliate commission if you click or buy through our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4640,8294,43655,28,2530,30,29,110,5775,5776,27004],"class_list":["post-77666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-betting","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting","tag-sports-picks","tag-uconn-huskies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}