With opponents, dates, and venues finalized it’s time to start breaking down the 2024-25 schedule for UConn basketball.
UConn basketball recently released the final piece of their schedule with the home venue split announcement. It’s usually one of the more exciting days of the offseason for Husky fans, but between the transfer portal, NBA draft decisions, and coaching contracts it’s safe to say fans want to fast forward to opening night.
2024-25 venue splits are here 🔥👀 pic.twitter.com/TXjKmzX8LN
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) September 25, 2024
Between Gampel Pavilion and the XL Center, UConn basketball has two venues that they call home and both create a serious home court advantage for the Huskies. Although there’s plenty of factors that go into creating the schedule, there is no doubt that Gampel drew more of the big matchups for this upcoming season leaving a bit more to be desired from the XL Center slate. Let’s get into it and breakdown the five most intriguing home matchups.
5. Mar. 4: Marquette at Gampel Pavilion
While Marquette should be ranked to start the season, they certainly have some questions to answer at the point guard position after the departure of Tyler Kolek to the NBA. Shaka Smart has turned Marquette into a perennial competitor for the Big East crown and will have that answer figured out by the time the Golden Eagles make the trip to Connecticut in March. After UConn took advantage of a banged up Marquette squad to win in Wisconsin last season, expect Shaka Smart to be looking for some revenge in Storrs.
4. Dec. 18: Xavier at XL Center
While UConn basketball handled Xavier with ease last season by going 3-0, this season will be more challenging as the Musketeers return Zach Freemantle and Jerome Hunter who both missed all of last season due to injuries. UConn is also 1-3 in conference openers since rejoining the Big East which will certainly be a statistic Dan Hurley uses to motivate his squad in preparation for this matchup.
3. Jan. 18: Creighton at Gampel
Creighton lost some serious talent with Trey Alexander and Baylor Scheierman heading to the NBA, but Greg McDermott always has the Bluejays towards the top of the conference and don’t expect this season to be any different. Last season, this matchup was a true slug fest as UConn played their first game as the top-ranked team in the AP Poll in nearly 15 years. Whether or not that is the case this season, basketball fans know they’re in for a treat with this Big East clash.
2. Dec. 4: Baylor at Gampel
Last season the Big East-Big 12 Battle delivered with an iconic matchup when UConn traveled to Allen Fieldhouse to take on Kansas. This season it delivers again with Baylor coming to Storrs in a matchup of two of the last three schools to win a national championship. Both teams will start the season ranked in the top 10 and have extremely difficult schedules leading up to this game, but if each team can win up to this point then this should be a top five matchup at the basketball capital of the world.
1. Feb. 7: St. John’s at Gampel
It might be Super Bowl weekend, but the matchup that everyone should be paying attention to is Dan Hurley and Rick Pitino. After the comments Pitino made last season about wanting to play UConn basketball at Carnesecca, it only feels right that UConn hosts the Red Storm in their own on-campus arena to show St. John’s what UConn nation is capable of. This matchup being on a Friday night only makes it that much more exciting as it feels like the clear frontrunner for a white-out and $2 beer night to get Gampel even louder.