UConn-Gonzaga, Flagg and Calipari highlight MSG college hoops schedule featuring 11 national champs

AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Back-to-back NCAA champion UConn returns to Madison Square Garden next month for a marquee matchup against Gonzaga, highlighting this season’s college basketball schedule at “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”

Arkansas, Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina are also among 11 programs with a national title set to play at MSG.

In all, 11 teams ranked this week in the AP Top 25 are slated to appear in Midtown Manhattan — including seven of the top 15.

It all starts Sunday, when Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino and No. 22 St. John’s, ranked in the Top 25 for the first time in nearly six years, take on New Mexico in the NYC Hoops for Heroes Classic benefiting the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

The game pits Pitino against his son, Richard, the head coach of a Lobos squad that reached the NCAA Tournament last season.

John Calipari, another Hall of Fame coach, brings No. 18 Arkansas to The Garden to face Michigan in the second game of the Jimmy V Classic doubleheader on Dec. 10. Calipari is in his first season with the Razorbacks after leaving Kentucky last spring.

The opener that night features No. 11 Tennessee against Miami.

Four days later, third-ranked Connecticut plays No. 4 Gonzaga in a rematch of a game won by the Huskies in Seattle last December.

UConn went 7-0 last season at Madison Square Garden — a venue its fervent fans like to call “Storrs South” — on the way to its second consecutive NCAA crown.

The following weekend, No. 10 North Carolina faces UCLA, and No. 19 Kentucky squares off against No. 21 Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic.

Freshman sensation Cooper Flagg and No. 6 Duke come to MSG for a Feb. 22 tussle with Illinois.

And, of course, St. John’s plays seven Big East home games at The Garden, including matchups with Villanova (Jan. 11), Georgetown (Jan. 14), No. 15 Marquette (Feb. 4), No. 14 Creighton (Feb. 16) and UConn (Feb. 23).

Defending champion UConn returns for the Big East Tournament, too, which runs from March 12-15.

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