UConn men’s basketball releases nonconference home schedule

Earlier in the month, the American Athletic Conference released the pairings for conference play. On Monday, the UConn men’s basketball team has released the home portion of their non-conference schedule, featuring three Saturday games, which is more than all of last season.

The Huskies will be playing seven non-conference teams as part of their 16-game regular season schedule and two exhibition games, on Oct. 30 against Merrimack and Queens on Nov. 5.

The season opens for real on Nov. 10, when Colgate comes to Connecticut. UConn will also play a team to be determined on either Nov. 14 or 15 as part of the PK80 Tournament that the Huskies will be playing in over Thanksgiving week.

Boston University will come to town on Nov. 19 before UConn heads west for the PK80 Tournament, where the Huskies will play Oregon on Thanksgiving to open the proceedings. The Huskies played both teams last year, narrowly defeating BU and falling to Oregon in the Maui Invitational.

They return to the East Coast on Nov. 29 with Columbia and then Monmouth on Dec. 2. Coppin State will come to the Nutmeg State to close out its schedule in the fall semester on Dec. 9, just before final exams.

After the break, Villanova will visit Hartford to play the Huskies in a renewal of a Big East rivalry on Jan. 20 to close out the non-conference season with a bang.

In addition to the home slate, the Huskies will be taking on Syracuse at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 5 and making trips to Arizona on Dec. 21 and Auburn on Dec. 23 to go along with the three games in the PK80 Tournament.

UConn will also play UCF, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Memphis, USF, SMU, Temple, Tulsa and Wichita State at home as part of conference play in The American.