No. 4 UConn opens the 2026-27 regular season Monday night against Gardner-Webb at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, starting a new year with a 9 p.m. tip and a national audience on Peacock and NBC Sports Network. John Fanta, Donny Marshall and Caroline Pineda will call the game.
For UConn, the opener also starts the 124th year of men’s basketball, a history that began in 1900 and has included six national championships. This is Dan Hurley’s ninth season as head coach, and the Huskies enter with momentum after a 3-0 preseason in October that included wins over Syracuse, Michigan State and Purdue.
Silas Demary Jr. is the name at the center of that momentum. He led UConn with 13.0 points per game in the preseason and was named BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year, giving the Huskies a seasoned lead guard feel as they begin another ranked season. UConn was picked No. 4 in the Preseason Poll and chosen as the BIG EAST favorite for the second straight season, so the opener is less about finding out whether the Huskies belong and more about whether that form carries over when the games count.
There is still a wrinkle in the setup. Gardner-Webb has met UConn only twice before, both times in 2007, when the Huskies won 78-66 in the 2K College Hoops Classic Semifinals at Madison Square Garden and 89-72 in Hartford later that month. That makes Monday night a rare third meeting, and it arrives with UConn a heavy favorite after holding Syracuse, Michigan State and Purdue to 34.4 percent shooting in the preseason while posting a plus-17.0 scoring margin.
The opener also fits a pattern Hurley has built with the program. UConn is 93-30 all-time in season openers and a perfect 8-0 under him, so the Huskies are not just beginning another year — they are trying to extend a run of clean starts that has become part of the standard in Hartford. After Gardner-Webb, UConn travels to Boston for a National Championship game rematch against Michigan on Friday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m., so Monday’s game is the first checkpoint in a week that can quickly shape the early tone of the season.
