UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- On Tuesday night, the UConn Huskies men's basketball team defeated the Syracuse Orange 72-52 in the exhibition opener at Mohegan Sun Arena.

After the game, Huskies head coach Dan Hurley said that he wants to see the game become a regular occurrence in the regular season. He also spoke highly of Syracuse head coach Gerry McNamara, who is in his first season at the helm of the program.

Also after the game, McNamara confirmed he wants to play this game more often, and he also heaped praise upon Hurley and his staff.

"Yeah, I love this. I grew up in this. This is what I played in. This game means a lot to me. You know, it felt like when I was a player in the Big East, it brought the best out of both programs.

Obviously, what Danny's (Hurley) done has brought them back to where we want to go. That's the vision of us, of what we want to try to accomplish here for the next phase. So obviously, getting a chance to play against them, it was different.

I love their staff. Like, I've known those guys a long time. It's hard for me to root for a UConn team, but I find myself doing it because of the people that are on the sidelines.

So, yeah, I think both of us really appreciate old school, head-to-head, competitive juices and putting these two teams together, because I think the fanbases enjoy it.

I think we're going to continue to get better. They've obviously gotten to that point. So, yeah, it's been a lot of fun just getting down here to do this again. And hopefully, as we move forward, this is something that we do every year."

I actually think they're pretty good, to be honest, for a few different reasons.

1) This is not a difficult matchup logistically. These two programs are only separated by a few hours, so it's easy to do a home-and-home series, or a neutral-site series at some place like Madison Square Garden, as Hurley has suggested. In a world where scheduling has become more difficult, this is easy to pull off.

2) Furthermore, this matchup wouldn't be as expensive to pull off, either. And in a world where everything is expensive, modest savings are appreciated. These games won't require a plane ride, they won't require several nights in a hotel, or several meals on the road. That's good too.

3) Syracuse is going to get better, which is going to make this game more worth playing for UConn. Hurley essentially confirmed this in his media availability: Syracuse hasn't been good enough to play in the last few years. As the Huskies look to challenge themselves in the non-conference, every game has to have a purpose to get them better and more prepared for the NCAA Tournament. The Orange can't provide that challenge right now, but they should be able to in the future.

Hurley called McNamara one of the top young coaches in the country at one point.

The two teams haven't met in the regular season since 2018.

The Huskies will take on Michigan State in exhibition game No. 2 on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET.