Two of college basketball's top coaching minds, Dan Hurley and Tom Izzo, are set to square off in a blockbuster home-and-home exhibition series between UConn and Michigan State.The first matchup is scheduled for October 28 in Connecticut, with the return leg set for 2026 in East Lansing, though the exact date remains undecided.Basketball insider Adam Zagoria broke the news on Thursday on X.“UConn and Michigan State agreed to a home-and-home exhibition series beginning Oct. 28 in CT," Zagoria tweeted. "The return game will be in East Lansing in 2026.”Both schools later confirmed the agreement, igniting early hype among college basketball fans.While the games will count toward the official series record, they carry serious bragging rights. The Huskies and Spartans have met eight times in the past and the record is perfectly balanced at 4-4.The teams first clashed in a home-and-home in the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons. Each team defended its home court before each eventually winning national championships in the years they won the matchups, UConn in 1999 and Michigan in 2000.Their last six meetings have all come at neutral venues, including key NCAA Tournament games: a Final Four win for Michigan State in 2009 and an Elite Eight triumph for UConn in 2014.This will be the first visit for Michigan State to Storrs since 1998, while UConn has not traveled to East Lansing since February 2000. Their most recent showdown came in 2021 during the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, a tight semifinal that ended with a four-point win for Izzo’s Spartans.Dan Hurley fulfills talks of big-time matchups with Michigan showdownIn March, Hurley said he wanted UConn to play big-name teams during November and December in a home-and-home matchup style.“We reached out to Kentucky, Duke, Carolina and Kansas,” he told reporters before their NCAA Tournament second-round game against Florida.Hurley said these games are exciting and good for college basketball, and he wants UConn to be part of them.Michigan State is coming off a 30-win season and an Elite Eight run, along with a Big Ten regular season title. UConn is still one of the top teams in the country under Hurley, with two straight deep runs in the NCAA Tournament.