The UConn women’s basketball team has completed their non-conference puzzle. After months of revealing select pieces during the offseason, UConn released their 13-game nonconference slate for the 2024-25 season earlier this week.
The Huskies have not played against a handful of these programs in at least a decade. Five foes faced Connecticut last season. No matter how long it has been since their last meeting with the Huskies, it is only fair to highlight a unique fact about each nonconference opponent.
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Fort Hays State (Exhibition)
UConn last played the Tigers, who are based out of Hays, Kansas, in a preseason exhibition at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion three years ago. Fort Hays State fell on the road 111-47. Redshirt juniors Azzi Fudd and Caroline Ducharme both dropped double figures; Paige Bueckers scored seven and supplemented it with nine assists. They were just three of nine players who spent at least 15 minutes on the court.
Boston University
The Huskies nearly scored as many points in one first-half run (34) as the Terriers did all evening (38) the last time these teams met in 2013. While this is a true home contest for Connecticut, there is a reasonable chance that the regular season opener could be Ducharme’s homecoming game. The 2022 All-Big East Second Team guard hails from Milton, Massachusetts, which is about 10 miles south of Boston.
South Florida
Remarkably, the last meeting between the two teams was the only regular-season nonconference contest where both Bueckers and Fudd each crossed double figures. The former buried six triples for all of her 18 points while the latter led the then-No. 2 Huskies with 21 in 38 minutes. The tight seven-point win was also UConn’s closest margin of victory over the Bulls since the universities first became conference foes in 2005.
North Carolina
Nearly everyone may recall last year’s intense duel between these championship-winning programs, a 76-64 Huskies’ victory at Mohegan Sun Arena. Bueckers—via a breakaway bucket early in the third quarter—matched Maya Moore’s program record for fewest games to 1,000 career points at 55. Most people might not know, however, that that contest snapped a streak of five straight games where Connecticut scored 80+ points versus the Tar Heels.
Fairleigh Dickinson
The Knights scored five (yes, five) points in the first half the last time they dueled with the Huskies 13 years ago. Torrie Childs’ jumper with 42 seconds left in the period prevented Fairleigh Dickinson from becoming the third school to record just three first-half points. Mariyah Laury scored the Knights' first point at the charity stripe and made their other first-half field goal almost 13.5 minutes into the contest.
Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship (two games in three days)
It is worth noting that UConn went 2-1 the last two seasons when they played teams outside of the United States and/or their territories. That will change this year, as the Huskies battle only two to-be-announced opponents among an eight-team field in the Bahamas. Excluding Toronto Metropolitan University, each program Connecticut faced on international soil came from a different conference.
Holy Cross
The Huskies and the Crusaders played each other every season from 1997-98 until 2011-12. Not one of UConn’s 15 wins in that span took place at the XL Center. As if beating them every time was not enough, the Huskies held Holy Cross to less than 40 points in each of their past five meetings. While the Crusaders reside in Worcester, Massachusetts, this could be another homecoming game for Ducharme.
Louisville
The Cardinals became the lowest-seeded opponent Connecticut has faced in their 12 national title games when they met in New Orleans in 2013. Louisville also gave the Huskies their lone defeat at Mohegan Sun Arena in 2021. UConn lost their third game before January for the first time in 17 years that afternoon, and they repeated the unfortunate feat two seasons later. The Huskies reached the Final Four both times.
Notre Dame
The Fighting Irish’s seven Final Four appearances were the second-most in women’s basketball during the 2010s. Only Connecticut made more during the decade, and they appeared every single year. Last season’s upset marked the first time Notre Dame bested the Huskies in the Nutmeg State since 2013. It was also just the third instance where the Fighting Irish won consecutive contests over UConn in their 54-game all-time series with them.
Iowa State
No player on either roster was born the last time the Huskies and the Cyclones met in the regular season. Mohegan Sun Arena will become the fourth different venue (in just two states) these programs will square off at. Iowa State eliminated Connecticut in the Sweet 16 of the 1999 NCAA Tournament. The Huskies got their revenge in that same round in 2010 en route to national title No. 7.
USC
UConn’s gritty 80-73 win over the Trojans in Portland, Oregon, marked the program’s 15th consecutive victory in the Elite Eight. It was also the second time in three NCAA Tournaments that the Huskies upset the No. 1 seed in their region in that round. Additionally, Southern California will be the first Big Ten foe that does not start with the letter M Connecticut faces in the regular season since 2019.
Tennessee
Welcome to the museum of sensationally strange, but true, facts that I have about the Volunteers.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
South Carolina
Bueckers buried a clutch overtime triple that bounced off the rim before going into the hoop when the Huskies beat South Carolina in 2021. Since then, the Gamecocks have lost just six games and captured two national titles. Four of those defeats came against Southeastern Conference opponents outside of the Palmetto State. Caitlin Clark and Cameron Brink, the top two picks in the 2024 WNBA Draft, delivered the other two.
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