The University of Connecticut men's basketball team will reportedly open the 2026-27 season with Gardner-Webb, according to a report from Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports.

Rothstein put the news out on social media on Saturday morning. The game will take place on Nov. 2, but the site has not been revealed.

The Huskies are set to play one of the most difficult non-conference schedules in college basketball history next season as they'll take on Duke, Michigan, Kansas, Virginia, Ohio State, Illinois and Arizona. This game obviously doesn't rise to those levels, but you've got to start somewhere.

UConn is coming off a season in which it finished second in the Big East and was the runner-up in the Big East tournament. Despite that, the Huskies advanced to a third national title game in four years, falling to Michigan.

A member of the Big South Conference, the program is coming off a horrific 2025-26 season. The Runnin' Bulldogs went just 4-29 and 1-15 in the conference. They were 0-16 away from home.

They played power conference teams in Minnesota (87-60 loss), Clemson (97-59 loss), and Tennessee (94-52 loss). 

The program is helmed by Jeremy Luther, who is going to enter his third season as head coach. He was an assistant previously at the school.

The Huskies have been practicing as part of "summer session." We got a limited look at the group in a social media video that was released on Thursday, but we were able to generate some takeaways, even from that limited video.

--Speaking this week on the popular 'Pardon My Take' podcast, outgoing UConn basketball star Alex Karaban told an incredible story about how he ended up committing to Dan Hurley's program. 

--Karaban is going to hear his name called in next week's NBA Draft, it's just a question of where and when. And he won't be the only UConn alum to get selected. Both he and Tarris Reed Jr. are expected to be late-first round picks or early-to-mid second picks.

--Not having Reed and Karaban will certainly be a different feel for Hurley's team next season. In addition to them, the program will be without Solo Ball, who is out for the entirety of the campaign with left wrist surgery.

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