Final Four Predictions! Illinois-UConn and Michigan-Arizona BEST BETS

The Early Edge: A Daily Sports Betting Podcast

CBS Sports, Sports Betting, Sports Gambling, Picks

Sports, Football

4.5 • 778 Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Join our college basketball experts Tom Casale, Chip Patterson, Mike McClure, Eric Cohen, and Sia Nejad as they break down both Final Four games between Illinois-UConn and Michigan-Arizona. They give their predictions, bets, and player props to pick from each game!

0:00 Intro

0:30 Illinois-UConn Picks, Props, Bets

14:10 Michigan-Arizona Picks, Props, Bets

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Get your daily bets here FIRST! The No. 1 sports betting show and podcast—powered by SportsLine + CBS Sports—delivers the day's best bets in a fast-paced, fun environment, first thing in the morning. Starting at 10 a.m. ET every weekday, The Early Edge goes live on YouTube, breaking down the day’s action across the NFL, college football, NBA, MLB, NHL, college basketball, soccer, and more! The Early Edge is here to talk sports betting for everyone—from first-time bettors to sharps, and everyone in between. From point spreads to totals, player props to parlays, and so much more, we're here to win. Together.

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💵BETTING

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Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up, everyone?
0:10.2	Welcome to the Early Edge.
0:11.7	It's a special Final Four breakdown edition.
0:15.4	And let's just go ahead and bring in the stars of the show because we've got two monster games to talk about with, let's see,
0:22.2	four monster cappers. We've got Eric Cohen, Chip Patterson, Tom Casale, and Mike McClure.
0:27.5	And gentlemen, we got to get right to it. We're going to go with the appetizer first. No disrespect
0:33.1	to Yukon, Illinois, Illinois favored by a point in a half here at BetMGM. 139 and a half is the total. We got plays on the spread. We've got plays on the totals, team totals, some props as well. And EC, you have been very hot over at sports line. So I'm going to let you do the honors. You've got to play on the side. What is it? Actually, I'm going to play on the money
0:54.3	line, see ya. I love the Yukon Huskies to win this game outright. Yukon already played Illinois in
0:59.3	November, and they won this matchup by 13. And all right, maybe Illinois is better since then,
1:05.7	and Yukon's not as good since then. But how do you bet against Dan Hurley at this point in the tournament, especially
1:11.5	against the spread? He's now 14 and 0 from the Sweet 16 onward against the spread.
1:16.4	That's just unbelievable. I think Yukon with Terrace Reed in the middle. I know Illinois has the
1:21.7	size, but Terrace Reed has been such a monster. And Yukon has that veteran leadership in Alex
1:27.1	Caravan, who's been here twice before.
1:29.3	I think Yukon gets it done and wins this game by about nine points. I don't think it's all
1:33.6	that close. So I'm rolling with the Huskies. Tom, this is going to sound offensive to EC.
1:38.2	And I was going to lead with, with all due respect to the game in November. I do not care about
1:43.6	that at all. Nonetheless, you're on the EC side of things. You actually, you're taking the points here. I think you got it at two and a half. It's now one and a half. You like Yukon as well. Yeah, a couple of things. I actually bet that game in November. I took Yukon. I know a lot of people like Illinois in that game. And I'm going to be honest, at that point in time, that was one of my favorite picks of the year. I mean,
2:04.2	Yukon, in the Garden, I thought they were a much better team on November 28th. Now it's different,
2:10.9	right? It's not the same cap as that game. And I wasn't actually expecting to bet either game quick.
2:18.4	But when I saw the two and a half start up, that was the opening line, I just jumped on it because these two games are going to be razor tight.
2:27.7	The two and a half gives me the opportunity to be down five in the final seconds.
	...

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