UConn, Kansas agree to home-and-home series beginning in 2025; Jayhawks will host first game this December
Few things are better for college basketball in the opening six weeks of the nonconference season than two blue bloods playing in an on-campus environment.
Connecticut and Kansas understand the assignment.
The two schools have agreed to a home-and-home series for the next two seasons, sources told CBS Sports. Kansas will host first, with the Jayhawks welcoming in the Huskies on Dec. 2 later this year. UConn will get the return game in Storrs, Connecticut, in 2026. Next season's game could be a top-10 affair by the time it tips, but as for now: UConn is No. 5, KU No. 18 in Gary Parrish's latest Top 25 And 1 offseason rankings.
It won't lack for star power either way. Both teams project to have preseason All-Americans (Solo Ball or Alex Karaban could fit the bill for UConn; Kansas has potential No. 1 2026 pick Darryn Peterson).
In addition to Karaban and Ball, the Huskies return center Tarris Reed and wing Jaylin Stewart. Georgia transfer Silas Demary is the fifth projected starter. Kansas, meanwhile, has the No. 1 player in the Class of 2025 in Peterson, who will be the lead guard and primary scorer on an overhauled roster that also brings back Flory Bidunga and Elmarko Jackson.
The Jayhawks and Huskies have met four times, with Kansas winning all four games. The most recent was a 69-65 win on Dec. 1, 2023 vs. a UConn team that would go on to win a second straight national title. That KU loss was one of only three defeats UConn took that season.
Bill Self and Dan Hurley have not played scared when it comes to scheduling; it only makes sense the two of them found common ground to meet the next two seasons. For Hurley, he's built up one of the best and most challenging nonconference slates you'll find in college hoops for 2025-26. Connecticut also has BYU (No. 3), Florida (No. 6), Arizona (No. 11), Texas (No. 23) and Illinois (No. 24) before burrowing into a 20-game Big East campaign. It's one of the strongest, if not the strongest, non-con schedules in program history.
On Kansas' side, Self has loaded up with Duke (No. 9) in the Champions Classic, road games against North Carolina (No. 25) and NC State, a rivalry game vs. Missouri in Kansas City, plus three more neutral-site games in the well-stocked Players Era Festival in Las Vegas (opponents TBD), an event that will boast a litany of Top 25 teams.
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