UConn likely to play Louisville in Champions Classic

UConn women’s basketball will likely take on Louisville in the inaugural Champions Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn next season according to Geno Auriemma. The coach revealed the potential pairing on his most recent radio show.

“It’s probably gonna be Louisville for us,” he said.

The Champions Classic was announced in February with the Huskies and Cardinals in the four-team field alongside Iowa and Tennessee. The initial release stated that matchups and tip times would be released at a later date.

The Huskies were already scheduled to face the Cardinals next season after the schools began a four-year series in December. UConn is slated to head to Louisville next season but the game in Brooklyn could change that.

In other scheduling news, Auriemma reaffirmed that the Huskies will travel to Greensboro, North Carolina to face the UNC Tar Heels next season. UNC coach Courtney Banghart confirmed the contest after the two teams faced off back in December.

“We’re at North Carolina, we’re playing them at Greensboro next year…because we played them at Mohegan,” Auriemma said.

It might not be the only road trip down south for UConn. According to Hearst CT’s Maggie Vanoni, the Huskies are “in talks” to renew their series with Tennessee next season. UConn would travel to Knoxville in 2024-25 before hosting the Vols the following year.

Currently, the Huskies have four confirmed matchups on their schedule: Home vs. the USF Bulls, on the road at Notre Dame, South Carolina, and Louisville (though as mentioned earlier, that could change), and the Champions Classic in Brooklyn, which will be Dec. 7 — the only set date on the calendar so far.

Then there are the two yet-to-be-announced contests at Tennessee and against UNC in North Carolina. This is what the current non-conference slate looks like:

Italics indicate that the game hasn’t been officially announced

That leaves approximately four single-game dates to be filled along with a multi-team event around Thanksgiving, similar to the Cayman Islands Classic this past November or PK85 last season.