The Duke-UConn rematch is already drawing major buzz, and CBS Sports College Basketball expert Jon Rothstein has put it at the top of the sport’s non-conference calendar.
Rothstein called the Blue Devils’ meeting with the Huskies, set for Thanksgiving Eve on Nov. 25, the biggest non-conference matchup on the men’s basketball schedule this season. It will be a return to last year’s Elite Eight battle, the one that sent UConn to the Final Four.
That game produced one of the tournament’s most unforgettable moments when UConn freshman Braylon Mullins knocked down a shot with under one second left. Duke head coach Jon Scheyer recently said he actually watched that game.
Both programs come into this season with plenty to sort out, even with the expectation that they’ll be strong again. Duke lost Cam Boozer, one of the top players in the country, to the NBA.
UConn also moved on from Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed Jr., who left for the NBA as well through graduation. The Huskies are also dealing with the news that guard Solo Ball is reportedly out for the season with a wrist injury.
That leaves both coaching staffs with real replacement jobs to tackle before the season gets rolling. And the stakes are bigger than just one night in November. A win here could become one of those marquee results that ends up shaping NCAA Tournament seeding down the line.
The timing only adds another layer. Thanksgiving Eve is usually a night when people are wrapped up in holiday plans, not circling a college basketball game on the calendar. This year, though, Duke-UConn shares the spotlight with an NFL matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams, setting up an interesting test for viewers and ratings.
The Blue Devils and Huskies will tip off at 7 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video. The NFL game will be on Netflix.
UConn’s exhibition season begins Oct. 13 against Syracuse at Mohegan Sun Arena.
In Other News...
Former UConn Assistant Shares Emotional Hurley Connection For ALS Cause
Dan Hurley added a familiar basketball connection to a cause with deep Boston College roots when he took part in the ice bucket challenge to raise awareness for ALS. The UConn coach nominated Luke Murray, the former Huskies assistant now leading the Boston College mens program, tying the moment back to a campaign that has remained closely linked to the school through Pete Frates, the former player whose role in popularizing it made the challenge a national movement before his death from ALS.
Murray later thanked Hurley and kept the chain going by naming Iowa head coach Ben McCollum as the next participant. It was a brief social-media moment, but one that carried extra meaning for anyone around UConn or Boston College, where Hurley and Murrays basketball connection and the ALS cause intersected in a very public, very personal way. [Read more 🡒]
UConn Fans Have A New Reason To Watch Baltimore's QB Situation
Quarterback injuries have rippled across the NFL, and for UConn fans, that has created an unexpected reason to keep an eye on Baltimores quarterback room. The name surfacing in that conversation is Joe Fagnano, the former Huskies passer whose college career at UConn is now part of a bigger leaguewide scramble for help under center.
A trade is at least conceivable if a team gets desperate enough to chase depth, but the path from possibility to reality is murky. Baltimore would have to decide whether to move him, and even then it is far from certain another club would bite given his limited NFL experience, leaving the situation more intriguing than imminent. [Read more 🡒]
UConns St. Johns Matchups Could Define Dan Hurleys Big East Push
The Big East slate always has a way of telling a team what it really is, and for UConn, the meetings with St. Johns should be among the clearest measuring sticks in 2027. Dan Hurleys group will get an early read on where its rotation stands and how its ideas travel when the Red Storm arrive on the schedule in the opening stretch of conference play, giving the Huskies a chance to sort through what works before the league grind deepens.
By the time the teams meet again later in the season, the stakes figure to feel different. UConn will have a full conference sample by then, and the second matchup should offer a better picture of whether the first lesson stuck, with the late-season rematch carrying the kind of timing that can shape a teams confidence heading into the most important stretch of the Big East calendar. [Read more 🡒]