UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The UConn Huskies men's basketball team toppled the Syracuse Orange 72-52 in the first exhibition game of the season on Tuesday night at Mohegan Sun Arena.
While he had said so before the matchup as well, head coach Dan Hurley reiterated that he wants to see the two programs meet up in future regular seasons too. Hurley, who has led UConn to three national title game appearances in four years, spoke glowingly of new SU head coach Gerry McNamara. At one point he called him one of the best young coaches in the country.
"Yeah. I mean, there's conversations, I think, with the two athletic departments, you know, with DB (David Benedict) and our people and their people.
Again, whether it's home and home or at MSG (Madison Square Garden). I just think for us, now that you got a guy like Gerry there, you know how this program is going to elevate now as every season goes by. It'll be a game that we'll want to play.
I think, just maybe, the last couple years, it hasn't really been a game that would have made as much sense for us just kind of based on where it's been. But I think you've got a pretty good idea where this thing's going to go with Gerry coaching."
McNamara, who played at Syracuse and helped the Orange win the national title in 2003-04, was a longtime assistant with the program before taking the Siena Saints job for two years. He led Siena to a conference championship in 2025-26 and nearly pulled an upset over No. 1 Duke in the NCAA Tournament. UConn ended up eliminating Duke in the Elite Eight on a game-winning shot by Braylon Mullins.
An honest admission
It was refreshing to hear Hurley admit the truth when he spoke about a future matchup. It's clear that the Huskies are challenging themselves as much as they can in the non-conference portion of their schedule these days. Basically, any game that UConn plays needs to serve a higher purpose. They are all designed to test the program for March, but they are also designed to be quality wins that help impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
Syracuse hasn't made the NCAA Tournament in five years and is coming off a 15-17 season. To Hurley's point, the game just simply hasn't been worth playing for a while now.
These two programs, who were longtime rivals in the Big East, haven't met in the regular season since 2018.
Up next for the Huskies
UConn will be back in action on Tuesday night against Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich. It's the second of three exhibition games for Hurley's team and the back-end of a home-and-home exhibition series between these two teams.
Michigan State is repeatedly one of the best teams in the country under legendary head coach Tom Izzo.