By R.L. Bynum

Coach Courtney Banghart has announced that her Carolina women’s basketball team will play perennial power Connecticut in the 2023–24 and 2024–25 seasons.

Banghart mentioned that scheduling in an interview with George Harmer on “The Tar Heel Show” podcast episode released Monday.

The first game in the 2023–24 season will be played at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., and Banghart said that the 2024–25 neutral-site game in North Carolina might be played in the Greensboro Coliseum. The Tar Heels gave eventual national champion South Carolina its toughest game in the NCAA tournament in the Gamecocks’ 69–61 win at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Carolina fans will remember the Mohegan Sun Arena as the site where the UNC men’s basketball team lost to Purdue and Tennessee in the Hall of Fame Classic last November. While it’s technically a neutral site, N.C. State fans will tell you how partisan a neutral-site crowd in the state of Connecticut can be. For the Wolfpack’s 91–87 two-overtime NCAA tournament loss in Bridgeport, Conn., last season, the arena was packed with Huskies fans.

The Huskies have a 7–5 edge in the series. UConn won 85–35 in the last meeting on Jan. 16, 2012. The Tar Heels’ last victory came 82–76 on Jan. 15, 2007.

UNC last played in Uncasville, Conn., on Nov. 29, 2015, when it beat Gonzaga 67–62.

Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications