Order has been restored in college basketball as Syracuse and UConn, one of college basketball’s most storied rivalries, are back. Well, kind of back, as the two teams are set to play in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Exhibition Game at Mohegan Sun Arena on October 13th. Syracuse and UConn’s women’s teams will also play in this exhibition game a day earlier on October 12th.
🚨 Mark your calendar! 🗓️
We’ll play UConn in a @Hoophall exhibition game at @MoheganSun.
📰 https://t.co/IBf8L3N3KK pic.twitter.com/ddWahdwQ1R
— Syracuse Men’s Basketball (@Cuse_MBB) June 25, 2026
Syracuse and UConn renew their Big East Rivalry! Sort of…
UConn’s History in This Event
UConn has played in this event the past two years; in 2024, the Huskies played their coach Dan Hurley’s former school, Rhode Island. The Huskies won this exhibition matchup 102-75. In 2025, UConn played Boston College and won 71-52. The Huskies and Boston College’s women’s teams also squared off in the exhibition event last year. The Huskies won 84-67.
Syracuse and UConn Rivalry History
The last time Syracuse and Connecticut squared off in the regular season was in 2018 at Madison Square Garden. The Huskies won 83-76. Jim Boeheim and Dan Hurley coached the game. This was Hurley’s first and only matchup against the Orange in his time at UConn. The last time the Orange and the Huskies played when Coach Boeheim was not on the sidelines was in 1974, when Roy Danforth coached Syracuse. Coach Boeheim has coached against the Huskies in 77 games andist 42-3s.
Syracuse leads the all-time series 56-39; Boeheim has 3 more wins than the Huskies in the series. UConn’s longest-tenured coach in the series was Jim Calhoun, having coached in this game 54 times. Every game that Calhoun coached in the series was against Boeheim. In the battle of the Jims, the overall record was split at 27-27, highlighting the golden years of this rivalry.
The most memorable game in this rivalry is one we all remember: honored in the concourses at Madison Square Garden with a framed picture. The six-overtime game in the 2009 Big East Tournament may be the most iconic in Big East Tournament history. Syracuse edged out UConn 127-117. The game lasted three hours and 46 minutes and ended at 1:22 AM. We can only imagine how many Connecticut fans missed their train back to Storrs that night.
Coach Boeheim and Calhoun met in the Big East Tournament 12 times. Out of those 12 games, three of them went to overtime, and the series was tied at six wins for each coach in the tournament. The last time these two schools met in the Big East Tournament was in 2012; Syracuse was ranked number one in the country. The Orange narrowly edged out the Huskies with a score of 58-55 in a grind-it-out game with a classic Big East feel. The final game that these two schools played in the old Big East was in 2013; it was Coach Kevin Ollie’s first season for the Huskies, and his team won 66-58 at home.
Since the New Big East
Since the inception of the new Big East (2013-2014 season), these rivals have only met four times, and they have not played since UConn rejoined the Big East. They met once in the Battle 4 Atlantis, and the other three games were neutral-site non-conference games at Madison Square Garden. In those four games, the Huskies and the Orange split the series 2-2. As we know, the Huskies rejoined the Big East in the 2020-2021 season, and these two programs have been on two completely different trajectories.
The Orange have only made it to one NCAA tournament (in the 2020-2021 season), going to the Sweet 16 that year. While the Orange have really struggled in recent years, the Huskies have been dominant. The Huskies over this timeframe have consistently sent prospects to the NBA, and Coach Hurley has led UConn to three National Championship games, winning two.
Syracuse was a pillar of consistent success under Boeheim, who coached the Orange for 47 years. Boeheim retired after the 2022-2023 season, and now the Orange are onto their second coach in the span of four seasons.
The newly hired coach and former Syracuse star Gerry McNamara could be what the Orange need. He understands the importance of old rivalries, already adding Providence and St. John’s to the out-of-conference schedule, and now UConn as an exhibition game. Every college basketball fan should want Syracuse and UConn to play in the regular season every year, preferably at the Garden, which will be tough given St. John’s recent success and its increased footprint there. Even home-and-homes will do; anything to get this storied rivalry back on the schedule every year. Let’s hope the exhibition on October 13th is just the start.
Trevor Ruszkowski, Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
