Traditionally, UConn basketball fans do not publicly see their new team in action for the first time until First Night in mid-October. When they do, the two programs are not playing as competitively as they would be in the regular season.
But the 2025-26 campaign will begin a little differently for the two title-winning teams. UConn Athletics announced last Wednesday that both basketball programs would battle the Boston College Eagles on October 13 at Mohegan Sun Arena. The order of which team plays first will likely not be determined until later this year.
Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day should provide a quality pre-season test for all four teams involved. KenPom, NET, and RPI rankings aside, there are infinite opportunities for everyone to get critical experience against squads other than their own.
In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, basketball beat writers Jake McCreven and Cole Stefan highlight the advantages of this northeast twin bill.
UCONN BASKETBALL MESSAGE BOARD | THE HUSKY HOUSE FORUM | UCONN BASKETBALL 2025 RECRUITING CLASS | UCONN FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Women's Basketball
73 NET points and 140 RPI points separated the Huskies and Eagles in last season’s final rankings. How both Big East Conference charter members performed during their respective 2024-25 campaigns further reflects that distance. UConn went 37-3 (18-0 in the Big East) and comfortably captured its 12th national championship. Boston College went 16-18 (6-12 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) with a first-round loss to the Villanova Wildcats in the WBIT.
An almost entirely new cast takes over in the Heights next year. Just two players from last year’s squad—Ava McGee and Athena Tomlinson—return for the 2025-26 season. Tomlinson averaged 2.2 points and 1.8 assists as a first-year student; McGee, meanwhile, missed the entire 2024-25 campaign with an injury.
Both guards should see a drastic increase in their roles on a team looking to improve its 12th-place finish in league play. They will not be the Eagles’ only superstars, however. Head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee has currently plucked three impact players from the portal.
Each incoming transfer, two of whom come from mid-major conference tournament champions, should slot into starting roles on day one. Erin Houpt enters Chestnut Hill from San Diego State and has made 42% of her three-point shots in her career. Kayla Rolph (6.7 points, 4.2 rebounds last year) comes over from William & Mary and brings much-needed experience to Boston College’s frontcourt. Kiera Edmonds did not play a game with the Houston Cougars last season, but at 6-foot-2, she should become the team’s starting center.
Including their three-person recruiting class, the Eagles still have seven available roster spots (the maximum scholarship limit has increased to 15). Most, maybe not all, of those openings should be filled by mid-August. The Huskies can still prepare for their first unofficial opponent, even if they only have half of a roster.
Last year’s Boston College team built its identity on a high-scoring offense and a potent transition game. The Eagles ranked sixth in the ACC with 73.1 points and third with 9.32 steals per game. Bernabei-McNamee should stick with that same style, even with an almost new group of players.
Outscoring BC should not be an issue for Connecticut, which averaged 81.7 points and is returning three of its top four leading scorers. Maintaining possession of the ball and containing the Eagles’ offense, especially from downtown, will instead be the key. Behind Paige Bueckers, the Huskies posted the nation’s best assist/turnover ratio at 1.96. That number, as well as the 52.2 points allowed per game, should decline with Bueckers off to the WNBA. Replacing the production lost from the first overall pick should help out UConn immensely in both categories.
There are two ways this preseason exhibition in Uncasville could go. The first is that the Huskies open on a double-digit run and capture a 40-point victory. The other route involves Boston College battling early on, specifically in the first half, before Connecticut pulls away late.
Even if they play their D-game, C-game, or B-game, this exhibition still provides the Huskies a pivotal advantage. Taking on the Eagles when they do gives UConn ample time (22 days, precisely) to clean out some kinks before going to Germany. The Huskies’ five newcomers, specifically their three first-year students, will become acclimated to a new style of basketball more quickly.
Above all else, though, 12-time national champion head coach Geno Auriemma will get to test out different lineups. These rotations could include his starting lineup, his small-ball roster, and even a unit featuring players over six feet. Running all of these rotations will help Auriemma determine if he needs to adjust them before the games count.
Connecticut won each of its past four preseason exhibitions, all against Division II schools, by an average of 59 points. Boston College will lower that average margin, but in exchange, the Huskies should be better prepared for the 2025-26 season.
Men's Basketball
October’s scrimmage will be the first time Dan Hurley faces the Eagles as a head coach. The Huskies last saw Boston College in 2013, defeating their former Big East rival by a basket in the 2K Sports Classic Benefiting Wounded Warrior Project at Madison Square Garden. UConn is 30-4 all-time versus Boston College dating back to 1988.
Head coach Earl Grant enters year five in Chestnut Hill following a 12-19 2024-25 campaign that saw the Eagles finish 17th in the ACC with a 4-16 conference record (only Miami was worse). Boston College plundered non-conference games against Dartmouth and South Carolina and narrowly escaped Temple (72-69), Missouri State (76-74) and Stonehill (73-69) en route to Grant’s lowest win total as head coach.
There is good news for Grant to build off of to start 2025-26: the return of leading scorer Donald Hand Jr. in the backcourt along with 36.3% of the team’s minutes from last season, according to Bart Torvik. Contributors Fred Payne and Jayden Hastings, both of whom averaged over 15 minutes per game last season, also return.
Grant dipped into the portal to find a second scoring guard, snagging South Dakota transfer and high-profile scorer Chase Forte to pair alongside Hand in the backcourt. The newfound duo will serve as the Eagles’ immediate scoring nucleus, with none of the other 13 rostered players averaging over 6.9 points per game last season.
The backcourt trio of Silas Demary Jr., Solo Ball and Malachi Smith will present a stark contrast of style compared to that of Forte and Hand. The Husky trio thrives off three point attempts and dishing the ball to open teammates down low, whereas the Eagle duo looks to crash the lane and get to the line while forcing turnovers on the other end.
Grant also received commitments from Aidan Shaw (Missouri), Jason Asemota (Baylor) and Boden Kapke (Butler) to round out the rotation in the frontcourt.
Boston College’s notoriously slow offensive pace did not pair well with its unconventional small-ball approach; the Eagles scored 80+ points just five times (going 2-3 in those games) and recorded a dreadful 28.8% mark on the offensive glass.
Grant deployed a rotation of four guards and one forward 13.7% of the time in 2024-25 (the most common rotation he ran last season according to KenPom), and looks to do the same again this season with the additions of Shaw and Asemota. As of today, no one on the Eagles’ roster stands taller than 6-foot-9.
This could mean a couple of things for the Huskies, who return Tarris Reed Jr. and welcome in seven-foot freshman Eric Reibe down low.
The first of which is obvious. Domination on the glass appears imminent, with Hurley projected to start a lineup taller than Boston College at all five spots. Four of those starters are back from a team that rebounded offensively at the 25th-highest rate in the nation last season.
If the Huskies clean the glass like they’re projected to, Hurley could dip deeper into his bench and experiment with a handful of interesting lineups that feature some of the new faces around Storrs.
If the Huskies want to run a small-ball lineup to match the Eagles, does Alex Karaban get time at the five while four guards gun it from long range? What about the pivotal position battle on the wing between Braylon Mullins and Jaylin Stewart? How will Jayden Ross acclimate to a larger role down low after a small taste of starting experience last season? A lineup of all freshmen (Mullins, Reibe, Furphy and Jacob Ross) could give a preview of Connecticut basketball a handful of years down the line.
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