UConn women’s basketball’s Texas series pushed back; date for Tennessee game set

UConn women’s basketball’s scheduled two-game series with Texas is moving back a year. Instead of the Huskies and Longhorns facing off this season and next, the first matchup will have to wait until the 2021-22 season, according to the Manchester JI’s Carl Adamec.

Texas will come to Connecticut during the 2021-22 season while Geno Auriemma and his squad will make the return trip to Austin the following season in 2022-23.

With UConn joining the Big East and its 20-game conference schedule, the Huskies were two games over the NCAA’s maximum limit. Now, UConn only has to reschedule or cancel one more game to become compliant.

The two schools have met eight times — all victories for the Huskies. Half those games have come in the NCAA Tournament: the 2003 Final Four when UConn dispatched Texas 71-69 en route to the program’s fourth national title, a 89-55 win the 2008 second round in Bridgeport, and the 2015 Sweet Sixteen and 2016 Elite Eight that propelled UConn to titles No. 10 and 11. Most recently, the Huskies beat the Longhorns 75-71 on the road during the 2017-18 season.

This offseason, Texas fired head coach Karen Aston, who had led the program since 2012 after she failed to win a single conference title or reach a Final Four in that time. She was replaced by Mississippi State head coach Vic Schaefer, whose Bulldogs famously knocked off UConn with a buzzer beater in the 2017 Final Four.

With that, here’s a look at UConn’s non-conference opponents for the next three seasons:

2020-21

Home: Dayton, Little Rock, Maryland, South Carolina
Away: Baylor, Cal, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia

2021-22

Home: Notre Dame, Texas
Away: Little Rock, Maryland, Oregon, South Carolina
Neutral: Louisville (reported, not official yet)

2022-23

Home: None
Away: Notre Dame, Texas

In other scheduling news, the date for the second matchup in the UConn-Tennessee revival series has been set. The Basketball Hall of Fame announced the game will be played on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021 in Knoxville. It will be televised on one of the ESPN networks and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Pat Summitt Foundation, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“Last year’s renewed rivalry against Tennessee was a great success,” Auriemma said in a release. “It was a great game and a fantastic atmosphere, and I think college basketball fans were excited to see UConn and Tennessee back on the court. I expect nothing less when we travel to Knoxville this season. I’m sure the fans in Rocky Top have missed me.”

Last season, UConn shut down Tennessee 60-45 at the XL Center — the first meeting between the two teams since 2007. While once the best rivalry in the sport, with the two teams playing each other 24 times between 1995-2007, Lady Vols head coach Pat Summitt canceled the series after accusing UConn of recruiting violations.

This is the third official date on the Huskies’ 2020-21 schedule along with the Basketball Hall of Fame Challenge, which will take place at Mohegan Sun Arena and include matchups with Quinnipiac (Nov. 28) and the winner of Mississippi State and Maine (Nov. 29).