Florida and UConn aren’t traditional rivals. They’re in different conferences, different regions, and they’ve only played eight times in 31 years. But when they meet, it usually matters — and the most recent chapter, the 2025 Elite Eight, sent Florida on to a national championship while ending UConn’s bid for a three-peat.
Here’s the full series, the games that defined it, and where things stand heading into the next meeting.
The all-time series
UConn leads the all-time series 6-2.
| Date | Result | Site | Stage |
| Dec 9, 2025 | UConn 77, Florida 73 | New York (neutral) | Regular season |
| Mar 23, 2025 | Florida 77, UConn 75 | Raleigh (neutral) | NCAA Elite Eight |
| Dec 7, 2022 | UConn 75, Florida 54 | Gainesville | Regular season |
| Nov 17, 2019 | UConn 62, Florida 59 | Storrs | Regular season |
| Jan 3, 2015 | UConn 63, Florida 59 | Gainesville | Regular season |
| Apr 5, 2014 | UConn 63, Florida 53 | Arlington (neutral) | NCAA Final Four |
| Dec 2, 2013 | UConn 65, Florida 64 | Storrs | Regular season |
| Mar 25, 1994 | Florida 69, UConn 60 (OT) | Miami (neutral) | NCAA Sweet 16 |
Florida’s two wins both came in the NCAA Tournament. UConn has won every regular-season meeting between the schools.
The 2025 Elite Eight: the most important game
On March 23, 2025, Florida beat UConn 77-75 in Raleigh in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. The Gators went on to win the national championship, beating Houston in the title game.
The win ended UConn’s run as back-to-back defending national champions. Dan Hurley’s Huskies had won the 2023 and 2024 titles and entered the 2025 tournament as a 2-seed trying for a three-peat. Florida ended that run by two points.
It’s the most consequential game in the series for either program — it gave Florida its third national championship (after 2006 and 2007) and kept UConn from joining a very short list of programs that have won three straight national titles.
The 2014 Final Four: UConn’s signature win
The other tournament meeting that gets talked about is the 2014 Final Four at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Florida entered as the No. 1 overall seed on a 30-game winning streak. UConn was a 7-seed led by senior guard Shabazz Napier. UConn won 63-53 and went on to beat Kentucky for the national championship — the Huskies’ fourth.
Napier was the story of that tournament. He averaged 21 points and was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
What changed in 2025
The 2025 game was different from 2014 in one important way: the regular-season meetings had been going UConn’s way for over a decade. UConn had won the previous four regular-season games, including a 75-54 blowout in Gainesville in 2022. Florida hadn’t beaten UConn at all since 1994.
What flipped it was personnel. Florida’s 2024-25 team had veteran guards Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin, plus depth at every position. They beat UConn 77-75 in March, then handled Auburn in the Final Four, then beat Houston for the title.
UConn responded by winning the December 9, 2025 rematch in New York 77-73, which means the series sits at 6-2 UConn but with the most recent NCAA Tournament meeting going to Florida.
The coaches
Both programs have been built by Hall of Fame coaches, though the eras don’t quite line up.
Billy Donovan coached Florida from 1996 to 2015 and won the 2006 and 2007 national championships — back-to-back titles, a rare feat. He left for the NBA in 2015 (Oklahoma City, then Chicago).
Jim Calhoun coached UConn from 1986 to 2012 and won national championships in 1999, 2004, and 2011. He turned UConn from a regional Big East program into a national power.
Todd Golden has been Florida’s head coach since 2022 and won the 2025 national championship in his third season — Florida’s first title since the Donovan era.
Dan Hurley has been UConn’s head coach since 2018 and won back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024 before Florida ended the three-peat bid in 2025.
The conferences
Florida plays in the SEC. UConn moved to the Big East in 2020 after a stint in the American Athletic Conference.
The two leagues approach basketball differently. The SEC has gotten progressively stronger over the last five years — the conference put 14 teams in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the most by any conference in a single year. The Big East is smaller, basketball-focused, and built around teams like UConn, Marquette, Villanova, Creighton, and Xavier.
For most of the 2010s the conventional wisdom was that Big East basketball was tougher than SEC basketball at the top. The 2025 tournament — where the SEC sent 14 teams and Florida won the title — challenged that.
What to watch when they play
A few patterns from the eight meetings:
- Tournament games stay close. Three of the four NCAA Tournament meetings were decided by 10 points or fewer; the 2025 Elite Eight came down to the final possession.
- Regular-season games favor UConn. Every regular-season meeting in this series has gone to UConn, by margins ranging from 3 to 21 points.
- Guard play decides it. Shabazz Napier in 2014, Walter Clayton Jr. in 2025. The team with the better lead guard has won the biggest games.
Q&A
Q: What’s the all-time Florida vs UConn basketball record? UConn leads the series 6-2 across eight meetings from 1994 to 2025. Florida’s two wins both came in the NCAA Tournament: a Sweet 16 overtime win in 1994 and the 2025 Elite Eight.
Q: Who won the 2025 Florida vs UConn game? Florida won 77-75 in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight on March 23, 2025. Florida went on to win the national championship — its third — while ending UConn’s bid for a three-peat after the Huskies won the 2023 and 2024 titles.
Q: What happened in the 2014 Final Four? UConn beat top-seeded Florida 63-53 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on April 5, 2014. UConn was a 7-seed led by Shabazz Napier and went on to win the national championship over Kentucky.
Q: When do Florida and UConn play next? The schedule for future meetings hasn’t been announced. The two programs aren’t conference opponents, so any future meeting would be a non-conference scheduled game or another tournament draw.
Q: How many national championships does each program have? UConn has six (1999, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2023, 2024). Florida has three (2006, 2007, 2025).
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