Looking ahead to UConn's 2025-26 non-conference schedule

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Last week’s Weekly

• A deep dive into UConn's non-conference schedule

Looking ahead to UConn's 2025-26 non-conference schedule

Even though UConn’s non-conference schedule for the upcoming campaign only just came out, it’s never too early to look ahead to next season. The Huskies only have a few games on the books so far, but there’s potential for some fun road trips as well as a few marquee contests.

On the schedule

UConn already has three games already set for next year: Louisville, USF and USC. The latter two will be on the road to complete a home-and-home series while the location of the Louisville contest is uncertain since the two schools will face off in a neutral site game this season. The most likely scenario is that the Huskies travel for it since the Cardinals played at the XL Center in 2023-24.

Along with those three, UConn will presumably play Tennessee at home to finish a series that begins in Knoxville this season. While neither school has outright stated that it’s a home-and-home, Hearst CT reported back in March that the Vols will come to Connecticut in 2025-26.

Other staples

There’s a few games that UConn can count on annually.

It plays one game at Mohegan Sun each year, usually as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase in December. That’s typically against an NCAA Tournament-caliber opponent, whether it be Iowa State this season, UNC last year or Louisville, Florida State or Oklahoma in the recent past.

UConn also almost always travels for a tournament around Thanksgiving. It’ll head to the Bahamas for the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship this fall, then went to the Cayman Islands Classic a year ago and journeyed to Portland for the Phil Knight Legacy in 2022. These events often feature a couple top-ranked teams (UConn and someone else) along with some middle-tier power conference opponents.

Continuing rivalries

UConn’s series with two of its biggest rivals, South Carolina and Notre Dame, both expire after this season. It would be a surprise if they both weren’t renewed considering the Huskies have played the Gamecocks in a regular season matchup every year since 2015 while they’ve faced the Fighting Irish in 11 of the last 12 campaigns since the old Big East fell apart.

A West Coast swing?

UConn will travel cross-country to play at USC next season and that meeting could set up a few more games on its non-conference schedule. Historically, the Huskies don’t go to the west coast for a single contest (though there are exceptions), so they’ll likely try to find another game or two.

The Huskies could stay in Los Angeles to play another high-caliber opponent in UCLA, or it could travel a few hours north to take on a familiar foe in Stanford — especially now that Tara VanDerveer has retired.

One idea? Combine it with a trip to San Diego for Ice Brady’s homecoming. She’ll already be an academic senior (even though she’ll be a redshirt junior in terms of eligibility) and would mean UConn doesn’t have to go coast-to-coast in back-to-back season. There’s a few different options between the University of San Diego, San Diego State and UC San Diego as well.

Aside from Brady, the Huskies don’t have many other homecomings coming up. For the juniors, Caroline Ducharme grew up close by while Azzi Fudd is served by the annual Georgetown trip. Among the sophomores, KK Arnold (Marquette), Ayanna Patterson (Butler), Ashlynn Shade (Butler) and Qadence Samuels (Georgetown) all grew up close to Big East foes as well.

As for the freshmen, that’s too far away to worry about.

An early framework

With all that said, this is what a (hypothetical) early look at the Huskies’ 2025-26 non-conference schedule:

Home: Notre Dame, South Carolina, Tennessee

Away: USF, Louisville, USC, another west coast game

Neutral: A game at Mohegan Sun Arena, a multi-team event

That makes eight contests along with the early-season tournament. This season, UConn has 11 non-conference games (plus the MTE), so it would have to add three more.

At least one is likely to be against a local opponent to open the season at home — the Huskies have done that for five straight seasons now, leaving two wild cards.

UConn could stack its schedule with another power conference opponent — Maryland, Oklahoma and Florida State are common foes — it could play a program with ties to the Huskies — Shea Ralph at Vanderbilt, Carla Berube at Princeton, Marisa Moseley at Wisconsin, Tamika Williams-Jeter at Dayton — or it could just add a few easy wins — think Holy Cross and Fairleigh Dickinson on the current slate.

Either way, the Huskies’ non-conference slate next season should be pretty fun.

Best of social media

Paige is gearing up for one last go:

The Huskies are back on campus:

Reunited:

Paige living it up at the Minnesota State Fair:

Napheesa Collier makes history:

Pretty good couple of days for Sue Bird and her wife, Megan Rapinoe:

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