This And That About The UConn Women’s Schedule

Next year, the UConn women’s basketball schedule will look dramatically different after the Big East welcomes Temple, SMU, Houston, Memphis and Central Florida to the family – and wishes Pittsburgh and Syracuse the best in the ACC.

But this year, a 15-team league, minus West Virginia, features one new conference wrinkle for the Huskies, along with dynamite non-conference road games against national powerhouses Stanford and Baylor, the defending national champion.

Here are some talking points:

• Everyone has a preference; home games in Hartford or Gampel Pavilion. Well, everyone gets eight games this season, including one each in the preseason.
• Many games are still without starting times. These will be filled once UConn meets with SNY, its new broadcast partner. SNY is expected to telecast most or all TBA games, likely even the three in the Virgin Islands in November, although those plans have not been finalized.
• Spend Thanksgiving in the Virgin Islands at the Paradise Jam (Nov. 22-24). Spend New Year’s week at Stanford and Oregon, if you can deal with New Year’s Eve in Eugene, Ore.
• Once again, UConn and Notre Dame meet twice in the regular-season. They end the season in South Bend on March 4 on ESPN2. Expect at least one more meeting at the Big East, which would the 11^th in the last three years.
• You won’t need to choose between the Super Bowl and the Huskies. UConn is at St. John’s the day before (Feb. 2). So go ahead and order your wings.
• The Huskies begin home-and-home series with Maryland and Penn State, end a two-year deal with College of Charleston and say hello to Oakland (Mich.)
• Thankfully, we will no longer need to see the World Vision Classic on Thanksgiving weekend. Note the pun.
• The unbalanced schedule created by the 15-team league means UConn will also play Marquette twice this season. Milwaukee is a very underrated town.
• The UConn-Baylor game will be the game of the century (2012-13 version). The Bears could have an undefeated streak of about 64 or 65 coming in.
• We know you’ve been waiting for this: The Seton Hall game will be Feb. 23 at Gampel Pavilion.