UConn beats Wagner 83 to 41 in their season opener at Gampel Pavilion.
There was certainly some nostalgia on the UConn basketball side of things for this game. Coach Dan Hurley started his college coaching career with Wagner, spending two seasons there before moving on to Rhode Island.
In his final season he had his first glimpse of success at the collegiate level leading Wagner to their single-season win-loss record at 25–6 in the 2011-2012 season.
While Dan Hurley has fond memories of Wagner, UConn basketball fans would beg to differ. The last time these teams matched up was the 2016 season opener for the #18 ranked UConn basketball team who were upset 67-58 by Wagner in what was UConn’s first ever on campus loss in a season opener.
One fun note to this season’s game was Wagner’s starting center is Youssouf Singare, who began his career at UConn and was part of the 2024 National Championship team.
Youssouf Singare recieved a warm welcome from the crowd during the starting lineup announcements which was an awesome moment. Singare finished with 5 points and 3 rebounds in 26 minutes of playing time against his old squad.
This game had a much different outcome than the one in 2016, as UConn ambushed Wagner, scoring the first 14 points of the game. Nik Khamenia was red hot to start, scoring 8 of the team’s first 12 points before he went out for the game with a lower leg injury.
UConn was dominant throughout and used a stifling defense to limit Wagner on offense. Silas Demary was a ball hawk on defense as he was causing havoc throughout the game, finishing with a career high 6 steals.
UConn as a team forced a season high 25 turnovers and held Wagner to just 33% shooting from the floor for the game.
UConn coasted throughout and won convincingly, 83 to 41, to move to 3-0 on the year.
3-0 ✅ https://t.co/Y9DdXPmOjw
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) November 10, 2026
UConn continues to show they are the cream of the crop in the Big East.
UConn basketball is a freight train this season, looking like they are every bit deserving of being ranked at the top of the Big East Conference.
They are extremely deep, with all five starters scoring in double-figures and each player can contribute to winning in many different ways. This makes UConn basketball so hard to guard as they are not one dimensional and reliant on iso-scoring from one or two star players like a lot of top teams.
They also use their depth to their advantage on the defensive side of the ball as they apply extreme pressure throughout the game because they have so many athletic guys they can put out on the floor. The defense is going to be the strong suit of this team, they currently sit 5th in KenPom defensive rating and show no signs of letting that rating dip down.
They still have several tough non-conference matchups coming up which will be a great way to see how they measure up with the rest of college basketball.
They will play 5 of the current top 15 ranked teams in the AP Poll over the next month in what may be the toughest non-conference schedule in the country. Any questions about this UConn basketball team will soon be answered.
Nik Khamenia injury concern.
Key transfer Nik Khamenia went down with what appeared to be a non-contact lower leg injury midway through the first-half against Wagner.
This was the only sore-spot in what was a ho-hum victory for UConn. Dan Hurley gave an injury update postgame, telling the media “We’ll get him tested tomorrow, X-ray, MRI… we’ll see whats going on tomorrow… obviously will be in a boot until we see what’s up.”
This would be a devastating blow for the UConn basketball team as they approach their brutal portion of the non-conference schedule. Egor Amosov and Colben Landrew are two players Dan Hurley said are expected to have larger roles should Nik Khamenia miss time.