UConn vs. Furman Prediction
In the No. 2 vs. No. 15 matchup in the NCAA Tournament East Region, UConn vs. Furman is the first-round game with a trip to the second round on the line.
Make VSiN your home for the duration of the NCAA Tournament and beyond. Take advantage of our college basketball betting tools and previews and predictions on every single March Madness game. We have College Basketball Betting Splits from DraftKings Sportsbook and Circa Sports, updated Vegas College Basketball Odds, College Basketball Odds from other states, College Basketball Matchup Data, and more.
Check out Greg Peterson’s Daily College Basketball Lines, Steve Makinen’s Power Ratings Lines, and look at College Basketball Picks from our VSiN Experts.
See all of our game previews and predictions in our March Madness Betting Hub.
Sign up for the FREE March Betting Challenge sponsored by ProphetX and EdgeBoost and/or the $1 Million High Stakes Survivor Madness presented by Splash Sports.
How to Watch UConn vs. Furman
When: Friday, March 20th
Where: Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Watch: TBD
Odds for UConn vs. Furman
(odds current at time of publish)
Spread: UConn -20.5 (-118), Furman +20.5 (-102)
Total: Over 137.5 (-110), Under 137.5 (-110)
UConn vs. Furman Prediction & Preview
It feels almost unfair to remind people what UConn did in 2023 and 2024, but it’s impossible to talk about this program without it. Twelve consecutive NCAA Tournament wins by 260 combined points. The smallest margin of victory over that stretch was 13 points. It took the eventual national champion — Florida — to finally end the run in last year’s Round of 32, a 77-75 game that was closer than anything the Huskies had experienced in two years of March dominance. This year’s team isn’t that version of UConn, but Dan Hurley has another top-10 squad and a roster built with enough of the same DNA to make a deep run entirely plausible.
The pillars are familiar. Silas Demary Jr. is a genuinely good guard, Alex Karaban provides the inside-out wing versatility that Hurley’s system demands, and Tarris Reed Jr. is a monster on the glass. The Huskies played well when it mattered most, posting wins over BYU, Illinois, and Kansas in road and neutral settings during the non-conference slate, and they went 10-2 in games decided by six or fewer points during the regular season. Whether that’s a sign of poise or a regression candidate waiting to happen is the honest question — but given Hurley’s track record in close games, the benefit of the doubt feels warranted. They also absorbed a Quadrant 2 and a Quadrant 3 loss in conference play without the season unraveling, which speaks to the team’s resilience even when Hurley’s sideline theatrics — including an ejection in the regular season finale against Marquette — suggest otherwise.
The vulnerabilities are real but narrow. UConn grades well below average in free throw rate on both offense and defense and shoots poorly from the line, a combination that can be punishing in tight late-game situations. Beyond that, this is a strong team on both ends of the floor and one that has more in common with the 2023 championship squad than last year’s group. The ceiling here is high.
Furman is a program with legitimate March Madness credibility — they upset Virginia in 2023 for their first NCAA Tournament win since 1974 — but this is honestly not the same caliber of team that Bob Richey has typically put on the floor in Greenville. This is the first Furman team in nearly a decade to finish the regular season outside the top 110 in Torvik’s adjusted offensive efficiency. Defensively, the Paladins ranked in the 340s in turnover percentage and carry one of the worst turnover differentials of any team in the field at -4.1%. A team that gives the ball away freely and doesn’t take it away on the other end is going to have a hard time generating the extra possessions needed to compete with a program of UConn’s caliber.
The good news for Furman is that timing is everything, and the Paladins had three of their five best offensive performances of the season in the SoCon Tournament, posting over 1.2 points per possession in all three games. Cooper Bowser and Asa Thomas missed a chunk of January, which contributed to a 10-8 conference record and a No. 6 tournament seed, but both being healthy for the stretch run matters. Like most of Richey’s teams, Furman excels inside the arc, shooting 59% on 2s. The problem is that they took only 130 more 2-point shots than 3-point shots all season, meaning a lot of their offensive production depends on perimeter shooting from a team whose profile doesn’t scream reliable. The SoCon finishing 24th in Torvik’s conference rankings doesn’t help calibrate those numbers either.
UConn is simply too complete a team for Furman’s flaws not to be exposed. The Huskies should advance, and Hurley’s quest to add a third banner continues.
Estimated Score: TBD.
For expert predictions, go to our college basketball best bets page.
