"Heavyweight Hiatus": Insider reacts as UConn-South Carolina rivalry rematch to be skipped this season

The UConn Huskies captured coach Geno Auriemma’s 12th national title in April with a win over the South Carolina Gamecocks in the championship game.

It was the second time the two teams had met in a title matchup, with coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks winning the previous one in 2022. Earlier in the season, UConn ended South Carolina’s 71-game home winning streak during their annual non-conference rivalry. However, it was announced last week that the two teams will not meet for their usual non-conference game next season.

During Friday's segment of the 'Big East Energy Network,' SNY insider Chelsea Sherrod joined analyst Mark Zanetto to discuss the end of the iconic non-conference series between two of college basketball's premier programs. (1:17).

"I don’t think anyone was expecting that," Sherrod said. "But you know, they’ve played multiple times—this series has happened over the past 11 seasons. UConn obviously with a big edge. I think they’re 11 and 5 in all of their meetings total. They met twice in the NCAA championship, obviously UConn coming off of a win here.

"So, it is weird also to just not have a rematch of the national championship game. I don’t really know what to make of it. They’re obviously two of the titans—you could call it the ‘heavyweight hiatus’—but like, two of the titans in women’s basketball. Not just from a player standpoint, but also from a coaching standpoint. And so I think also following that UConn NCAA championship win this past season, there was a little bit of a back-and-forth between the two fan bases."

The UConn and South Carolina series was a power matchup

In 13 of their first 14 meetings, either the UConn Huskies or the South Carolina Gamecocks were ranked No. 1 in the AP poll with four of those clashes being No. 1 versus No. 2 matchups.

The Huskies have dominated the matchup against the Gamecocks, winning 11 and losing five (5-1 at home, 4-2 in Columbia, 2-2 at neutral sites). In recent times, coach Dawn Staley's team dominated the matchup as they won an unbeaten national championship in 2023.

Coach Geno Auriemma's Huskies responded to the four-game losing streak against the Gamecocks by beating them 87-58 in Columbia in February and dominating them 82-59 in the national championship game to end a nine-year barren natty streak.

Both teams lost players to the WNBA and the transfer portal after their epic national championship game and both Staley and Auriemma responded by recruiting proficiently from the portal ahead of next season and setting up an epic battle for the national championship next season.