LAS VEGAS (April 30, 2026) – A heavyweight rematch is slated for T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas when UConn battles Duke on Thanksgiving eve, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2026. The Huskies beat the Blue Devils 73-72 last month in an epic Elite Eight game advancing UConn to the men’s Final Four. Veteran Las Vegas promoter bdG Sports will manage the game.
Both programs are projected to start the season as top five teams following this year’s portal window. Duke, currently projected at No. 2 by both ESPN and CBS Sports, will be led by returners Patrick Ngongba II, Dame Sarr, Caleb Foster and Cayden Boozer. The Blue Devils add transfer John Blackwell (19.1 ppg at Wisconsin) and incoming freshman Cameron Williams (McDonald’s All-American and top five player in the Class of 2026).
UConn, projected at No. 5 nationally, retains one of the nation’s top backcourts with Braylon Mullins, Silas Demary Jr. and Jayden Ross all returning to Storrs. The Huskies added Nikolas Khamenia (Duke) and Najai Hines (Seton Hall) in the transfer portal.
This year’s game is the fourth at T-Mobile Arena for Duke and the first regular season game for UConn. The Blue Devils opened the venue to college basketball before a sold-out crowd against UNLV in 2016. Duke returned in 2021 beating No. 1 Gonzaga in Coach K’s last season, setting a record, at the time, for the largest basketball game crowd (20,389) in Nevada history. UConn won two games at T-Mobile Arena in the 2023 NCAA Tournament West Regional beating Arkansas and Gonzaga to advance to the Final Four.
Prime Video will televise the game. Ticket, game time and additional information will be announced in the near future.
ABOUT BDG SPORTS
bdG Sports is a sports and entertainment leader with a dynamic and ever-growing event management portfolio with a cornerstone in basketball and professional golf and an expansive focus toward baseball. The firm boasts an event schedule that has delivered significant economic impact to multiple communities throughout North America and the Caribbean while featuring broadcasts to viewers across the globe.
In basketball, bdG has a lengthy history of producing premium college basketball content. From summer exhibition tours to multiple high-profile in-season tournaments and neutral-site events, bdG will contract more than 100 regular-season men’s and women’s Division I basketball games annually. It boasts the record for the largest hoops crowd in Nevada state history (Duke-Gonzaga 2021 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas), the second-most watched game since 2008 (Arkansas-Illinois on Thanksgiving Day 2024 with 5.1 million viewers) and the largest event in the sport, 20 men’s and women’s teams competing annually at Baha Mar Hoops. bdG is the only third-party operator which manages a conference tournament, assisting The Big West Men’s & Women’s Championships each March in Henderson, Nev.
In professional golf, bdG owns and operates two season-opening Korn Ferry Tour tournaments, The Bahamas Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island and The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club, both featuring $1 million purses.
For NCAA baseball, bdG owns and operates the annual Atlantis Collegiate Baseball Series and will soon launch a multi-team event, the Orlando Baseball Classic, at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.
About T-Mobile Arena
T-Mobile Arena, the 20,000-seat venue located on the Las Vegas Strip between Park MGM and New York-New York, opened April 6, 2016. The arena hosts more than 100 events annually including major headline entertainment, awards shows, UFC, boxing, basketball and other sporting events, family shows and special events. T-Mobile Arena also is the home of the Vegas Golden Knights, a National Hockey League expansion team and the city’s first professional sports team, as well as UFC’s exclusive Las Vegas arena destination. The venue, named the No. 1 venue on Billboard Magazine’s 2018 Arena Power List as well as the “Best New Major Concert Venue” by Pollstar Magazine in 2016, features 50 luxury suites, more than two dozen private loge boxes, complete broadcast facilities, and other specially designed exclusive hospitality offerings and fan amenities destined to create a guest experience second to none. Toshiba Plaza, an adjacent two-acre outdoor entertainment space, features performance stages, a variety of video screens and other interactive content and display areas. Designed and built to prioritize environmental sustainability, T-Mobile Arena was awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® (LEED) Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2016. T-Mobile Arena is a privately funded joint venture between AEG and MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM). For more information, visit T-MobileArena.com or follow on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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