On Monday, the Big East revealed the 2026-27 UConn Huskies men's basketball schedule. The 20-game conference slate will follow, arguably, the most difficult non-conference schedule in the history of the sport.
The Huskies will play the likes of Illinois, Arizona and Michigan, all of which got to the Final Four last season, and they will also play Duke, Virginia, Ohio State and Kansas. Even in the exhibition schedule UConn is challenging itself, playing Syracuse, Michigan State and Purdue.
As for the league schedule, we've got three main takeaways:
No 'three-game stretches'
The Huskies will never play three games in a row on the road or at home. They have several back-to-back home contests and back-to-back road contests, but never three straight of either. That will make travel easier, certainly as there will be no long road trips inside Big East play.
End of schedule is no joke
Three of the final four games for the Huskies feature Marquette (away), Providence (home) and St. John's (home).
Rick Pitino has already come out and said how good he thinks Marquette is, and Providence should be better under new coach Bryan Hodgson, who went to the NCAA Tournament last season with South Florida. St. John's is obviously expected to be good again, though they may dip back after the graduations of Zuby Ejiofor and Dillon Mitchell, as well as the season-ending injury to Donnie Freeman.
But still, that's a tough three-game stretch, and the Huskies finish up on the road at Xavier just for good measure.
Interesting opener
The Huskies will open up the league season on Dec. 23 at home against Georgetown, which brings an interesting dynamic and some questions.
The Huskies will have just played Virginia on Dec. 20 to finish out the ridiculously hard non-conference slate. Can they generate energy again for a Big East game just a few days later? It's also the day before Christmas Eve, so how does that play into things?
We're not saying the Huskies won't be motivated, but when you combine the energy that will be spent in the non-conference with the anticipation of the holiday, and the potential lack of crowd as a result of the holiday, it's a fair question to bring up.
Elsewhere in the news for UConn athletics
After a tough loss against Maryland on Saturday, the UConn football team (1-1) is back in action on Saturday night on the road at Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles are 1-1, having played two blowout games so far.
They defeated Alcorn State 49-3 before losing to Auburn 43-8 on Saturday. Kickoff is 7 p.m. ET.