Mega-matchups

A look at the Huskies’ most-anticipated games next season

2022-07-01 - By Maggie Vanoni

After dealing with a roller coaster season marked by injuries and historic losses, the UConn women’s basketball team’s path back to the Final Four and its 12th national championship begins with a fully loaded 2022-23 nonconference schedule.

The Huskies’ released their nonconference games Wednesday and the list features matchups with the programs’ most iconic rivals: South Carolina, Notre Dame and Tennessee. The team will be tested even more as it begins a home-and-home series with NC State following UConn’s thrilling double over time Elite Eight win over the Wolfpack last spring.

UConn will also begin twogame series with Maryland and Texas, while playing Princeton — led by former Husky Carla Berube — for the first time.

Here’s the top five most-anticipated matchups in the Huskies’ non-conference schedule:

SOUTH CAROLINA: TITLE GAME REMATCH

UConn concludes its nonconference slate on Feb. 5 in a rematch of the 2022 national championship game when it hosts South Carolina.

Last season, the Gamecocks beat UConn twice.

First in the inaugural championship game of the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in November and again five months later in the NCAA Tournament national title game in Minnesota. The loss at the Target Center was UConn’s first in the championship game after winning 11 times with a national title on the line.

The two were also scheduled to face off in Columbia, S.C. last January but that game was canceled due to scheduling conflicts and will be added to the end of the teams’ current contract in 2024-25.

UConn is 9-3 all-time and 5-0

at home against the Gamecocks. This season’s matchup could likely be the last collegiate matchup between the two most recent National Player of the Years: UConn junior Paige Bueckers (2021) and South Carolina senior Aliyah Boston (2022) — that is unless they meet again in the NCAA Tournament.

The Huskies are next scheduled to travel to Columbia in 2023-24.

NC STATE: REMATCH OF INSTANT CLASSIC

UConn’s Elite Eight matchup against NC State last spring provided fans in Bridgeport with an unforgettable night.

There was a gruesome injury when Dorka Juhász suffered a season-ending wrist fracture and there was enough tension and talent to push the game to two overtimes — all with a trip to the Final Four on the line. And remember, UConn’s run of 13 straight Final Four appearances was at stake.

Paige Bueckers scored 15 of her 27 points after regulation. NC State was looking to prove its spot as No. 3 in the final AP Poll of the season (UConn was No. 5).

And the last time the two teams met in the regional final? In 1998, when NC State defeated UConn to advance to its first Final Four.

It was the first doubleovertime Elite Eight game in the women’s NCAA Tournament history and UConn’s first overtime win in the tournament. The game was nominated for a 2022 ESPY under the “Best Game” category.

NC State and UConn will play a rematch in Connecticut on Nov. 20, beginning a two-game series between

the Wolfpack and Huskies. UConn will travel to Raleigh, N.C. in 2023-24.

NOTRE DAME: RIVALRY RENEWED, PART I

Last year’s meeting with Notre Dame will forever be remembered as the game Paige Bueckers got injured.

Bueckers went down with a non-contact injury in the game’s final minute in Storrs, adding another chapter to one of the best rivalries in the history of the sport. Bueckers missed the next 19 games due to a tibial plateau fracture and

wasn’t quite herself on the court again until the NCAA Tournament.

UConn had a chance to face the Irish again in the Elite Eight until NC State’s Raina Perez steal-and-score layup with 14 seconds left sealed the Wolfpack’s win and ended Notre Dame’s season in the Sweet 16.

The Huskies will travel to Notre Dame on Dec. 4 in the second game of a fourgame contract with the Irish. UConn will host Notre Dame in the 2023-24 season before traveling to South Bend, Ind. again in 2024-25.

The teams have played eight times in the Final Four, including twice in the title game. UConn leads the series, 39-13.

TENNESSEE: RIVALRY RENEWED, PART II

Although the date is yet to be determined, UConn will conclude its two-game contract with longtime rivals Tennessee this season in Knoxville.

The Huskies hosted the Lady Vols last February in Hartford in what turned out to be Azzi Fudd’s breakout game. The freshman led UConn with 25 points, going 7 of 9 from the 3-point range in 39 minutes with four rebounds and four assists.

It is unknown yet if the two teams’ will renew their series beyond the 2022-23 season. After playing each other each season from 1995 to 2007 — including four UConn wins in the national title game — the teams didn’t face each other again until 2020.

In 2021, the teams announced they had renewed their two-game series into the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.

PRINCETON: BERUBE’S HOMECOMING

UConn hosts Princeton on Dec. 8 in its first-ever meeting with the Tigers, who are led by former Husky standout guard Berube.

Berube played at UConn from 1993 to 1997. She helped led the Huskies to their first national championship in 1995 and scored 1,381 total points during her UConn career.

Since ending her playing career, Berube’s has had a successful coaching career. She led Tufts from 2002 to 2019, as the team reached the Division III championship game twice and had six players selected as AllAmericans. In 2015, Berube was named the D-III National Coach of the Year.

In her first three years (two seasons, the Ivy league did not hold competition in 2020-21) at Princeton, Berube has led the Tigers to a 51-6 overall record, with two Ivy League Championships, and has twice been named the Ivy League Coach of the Year.

In last spring’s NCAA Tournament Princeton knocked off No. 6 seeded Kentucky in the first round. The No. 11 seeded Tigers fell to No. 3 Indiana 56-55 in the second round, reaching the round of 32 for only the second time in program history.