Dan Hurley will get a shot at his brother’s rival.
The UConn men’s basketball program announced a home-and-home series with Arizona on Tuesday. The Wildcats will come to Connecticut on Nov. 19, 2025 with the return game set for Nov. 18, 2026 in Tucson.
UConn last played Arizona in a home-and-home series in 2017 and 2018, when former Xavier and now Texas coach Sean Miller was at the helm for the Wildcats. UConn lost both of those matchups, 73-58 on the road and 76-72 at the XL Center, but won the previous five for a 5-2 advantage in the all-time series.
“We reach out to Kentucky. We reach out for Duke and Carolina, Kansas. We’re trying to schedule those exciting home and homes or neutral site events that just get people’s attention for college basketball November and December. Playing games like that, I think are just great for the sport, and we want to play them,” Hurley said before UConn’s second round game against Florida in March. “Yes, we have reached out, and I think we’ll be announcing some exciting ones that we’ll be playing, but it takes two to tango.”
Arizona has been a perennial contender, making the NCAA Tournament as a top-four seed in each of the last four years under head coach Tommy Lloyd. The Wildcats lost in the Sweet 16 in three of the last four years.
Bobby Hurley, set to begin his 11th season as head coach at Arizona State in 2025-26, had a viral moment against his in-state rival this past season after pulling his bench players off the court with 30 seconds remaining in an 82-71 home loss to the Wildcats in February. Hurley and the five on the court skipped the traditional post-game handshake line and went straight to the locker room after the final buzzer in a chippy game that saw multiple ejections in Tempe, with the intention to avoid any further confrontations.
Arizona won the return game in Tucson just over a month later, 113-110, and improved to 4-17 all-time against Hurley, who is just 1-7 against Lloyd.
The Wildcats will have another talented roster in 2025-26, highlighted by returning point guard Jaden Bradley and forward Tobe Awaka, in addition to the four-man high school recruiting class that ranks No. 4, just behind the Huskies. That class includes three five-star, top-30 recruits in Koa Peat, Brayden Burries and Dwayne Aristode, as well as three-star Bryce James, the youngest son of NBA superstar Lebron James.
The Arizona game is the second announced piece of UConn’s 2025-26 schedule. The Huskies will host Texas on Dec. 12, 2025 as a return game of UConn’s win in Austin this season.
