The No. 4 UConn men’s basketball team opens the 2026-27 regular season on Monday night against Gardner-Webb at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, starting at 9 p.m. It is the first game of a season that already carries the weight of UConn’s 124th year of men’s basketball.
The opener is on Peacock and NBC Sports Network, with John Fanta, Donny Marshall and Caroline Pineda on the call. For a program that first took the court in 1900 and has played in all but three seasons since, the night is less about arrival than continuation, with UConn beginning another run after finishing preseason play 3-0.
That preseason stretch is why the Huskies enter the night with so much attention. UConn beat Syracuse 73-53, Michigan State 78-70 and Purdue 76-53, held those three high-major opponents to 34.4 percent shooting and 14.1 percent from 3-point range, and finished with a plus-17.0 scoring margin. Silas Demary Jr. led the way with 13.0 points per game and 3.7 assists per contest, a strong start for a guard who was named BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year.
Dan Hurley is entering his ninth season as UConn’s head coach, and the standard around him is obvious. He has won six national championships with the program’s titles in 1999, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2023 and 2024, and UConn was picked No. 4 in the Preseason Poll while being named the BIG EAST preseason favorite for the second straight season. The Huskies also have a 93-30 record in season openers and are 8-0 in openers under Hurley, a streak that explains why a night like this still matters even before the calendar has really turned.
Still, Gardner-Webb is not just a formality. Monday’s game will be the third all-time meeting between the teams, after UConn beat Gardner-Webb 78-66 in the 2K College Hoops Classic Semifinals at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 15, 2007, and 89-72 in Hartford on Nov. 20, 2007. The matchup gives UConn a home opener against a familiar name, but not one it sees often, which is part of what makes the schedule interesting even for a heavy favorite.
For UConn, the next test comes quickly. After Monday night in Hartford, the Huskies are scheduled to play Michigan in Boston on Friday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m., giving the No. 4 team in the country little time to settle in before the level of competition climbs again.
