Burdge: I Have UConn-Miami on My March Madness Bracket; Here's How I'm Betting This Game
Why I'm taking UConn to beat Miami in the Final Four
By Lucy Burdge – Mar 31, 2023, 8:25pm
Before I go any further about this, I must give credit to Red Sox manager Alex Cora. I would never have had Miami in the Final Four without his tweet to me questioning my pick of Houston against UConn. So major thank you to him.'
And now this matchup is actually happening and I still can't believe it but it also pains me that my ride with Miami must end here. While I want to bet on the Hurricanes to win this game, my bracket says UConn wins this and I have to stick with my bracket predictions.'
Which means I'm siding with UConn here. UConn is -250 on the moneyline at BetMGM and they are 5.5-point favorites. And I'm taking them to cover that spread at -5.5.'
Not only because this team is favored to win the national championship at -125 after opening the season with +6600 title odds. But also because I was born and raised in Connecticut, was a huge UConn fan in 2004 when both the men's and women's teams won the national championship and the entire state was in a UConn frenzy. I probably still have a few of the commemorative magazines they sold at the supermarket checkout.'
So basically I have to go against my respect and admiration for the manager of my favorite MLB team and side with the team representing my home state.'Even though it means leaving the side of Miami and I will no longer be able to celebrate as I have been doing after each Miami win by just tweeting the word “Miami” and tagging Alex Cora in it with the “partying face” emoji to which he would reply with the high-five emoji (it's a whole thing), I will have to do so in favor of my home state.
Only for the great state of Connecticut would I ever go against Cora, and that happens to be the situation here so that's how it has to be.