UConn basketball takes over downtown Hartford on Monday, with the No. 2 women opening the season against Cornell at 5 p.m. and the No. 4 men tipping off against Gardner-Webb at 9 p.m., both at PeoplesBank Arena. It is the Huskies’ first basketball doubleheader since 2022, pairing two nationally ranked programs under one roof for a single night, even though fans will need separate tickets to see both games.
According to NBC Sports, the women’s game kicks off NBC’s entire college basketball slate for the season, with the men capping the night at 9 p.m. Both games will stream on Peacock. The Hartford Courant reports the event will require separate admission for each game, and the arena will be fully emptied before the second crowd files in.
That reset mirrors how UConn ran its last doubleheader at the XL Center, now PeoplesBank Arena, back in November 2022. The Daily Campus notes the games will operate independently, with separate admission and a clearing out of the arena between tip-offs, per dailycampus.com.
Two Top-Five Teams Open Their Seasons Together
Geno Auriemma’s women enter the year ranked No. 2 in the preseason Associated Press Poll, the program’s own site notes, after a 38-0 start last season that ended with a Final Four loss to South Carolina, according to NBC Sports. UConn returns reigning BIG EAST Player of the Year Sarah Strong along with starters KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade, the same source reports.
The Huskies have won 30 straight season openers and sit 44-8 all-time in opening games, according to uconnhuskies.com. Dan Hurley’s men, meanwhile, finished last season ranked No. 2 nationally after reaching their third national championship game in four years, NBC Sports reports, and they return preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year Silas Demary Jr. The Daily Campus adds that the men are chasing their 10th consecutive season-opening victory, and that last season included a 23-point win over Purdue in a national title rematch before a sellout crowd of 15,495 at PeoplesBank Arena, plus a road win over Tom Izzo and No. 6 Michigan State, 78-70.
A Tradition With Roots Going Back to the 1980s
Monday’s twin bill isn’t the first time Hartford has hosted both Huskies squads on the same day. Auriemma coached his first game at the old Hartford Civic Center on January 18, 1986, when the UConn women played Pitt at 5 p.m. before the UConn men fell to St. John’s, according to the Hartford Courant. UConn staged another doubleheader five weeks later, on February 22, 1986, with the women losing to St. John’s and the men falling to Providence, the Courant reports. The format returned again in the 1987-88 season, when the women beat CCSU on a night the men lost to Virginia in Jim Calhoun’s first season as coach, per the same account.
The Courant also notes that UConn and Tennessee once drew more than 16,000 fans to Hartford on January 5, 1997, after Gampel Pavilion had opened on campus by the mid-1990s, with UConn splitting home games between Storrs and Hartford. The last doubleheader before Monday’s came in 2022, when the women beat NC State and the men beat Delaware State in games that tipped off at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. on a weekend, with both teams winning, according to ctinsider.com. That outlet also reported the men hadn’t played Delaware State since a 79-49 win on December 1, 2008.
Players and Coaches Weigh In on the Late Night
For some Huskies, Monday’s event will be a first. Jayden Ross, a senior on the men’s team, told the Hartford Courant that the doubleheader is the first such event since he joined the program. Women’s senior KK Arnold said she might stick around to catch the men’s game after her own, per the same report, while men’s point guard Silas Demary Jr. said his team will support the women even if they can’t be in the stands, since the Huskies will be running through their own pregame routines while the women are still playing.
Hurley said the split schedule — a 5 p.m. women’s start on a weekday followed by a 9 p.m. men’s game on a school night — could create logistical headaches for both programs but should be good for business downtown, according to the Courant. UConn has 12 women’s national championships and six on the men’s side, the Courant notes, success that has helped the programs lean on Hartford as a regular second home even as the athletic department looks to generate more revenue to help pay athletes under NIL and revenue-sharing arrangements.
Pratt Street Braces for a Long Basketball Night
Nearby Pratt Street businesses are gearing up for a packed evening. Establishments there plan to open at 3 p.m. ahead of the first tip-off, the Courant reports. Urban Lodge Brewing Co. will run a limited menu before the women’s game and an even more limited one during the break between games, according to general manager Mike Smith, who told the Courant he expects a rush of customers around 7:30 p.m. as fans shuffle between the two games.
Fans looking ahead to future UConn home dates can find season-ticket details through the UConn Athletics Ticket Office, which lists eight men’s and eight women’s games at PeoplesBank Arena for the 2026-27 slate. Women’s basketball season-ticket deposits are available for $25 per seat, with a limit of four per fan, across both PeoplesBank Arena and Gampel Pavilion, though deposits for men’s season tickets were not available as of this listing.
