Counting down the days until graduation from St. Anthony High School, Dan Hurley watched in awe as his older brother, Bobby, delivered a virtuoso performance against UConn in the 1991 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. 

Bobby Hurley, then just a sophomore for Duke, finished with seven assists and zero turnovers, as the Blue Devils rolled past UConn men’s basketball 81-67 en route to a legendary Final Four upset over Jerry Tarkanian’s UNLV squad and coach Mike Krzyzewski’s first national championship. 

Duke and UConn met three times in the NCAA Tournament between 1990 and 1999, with Bobby Hurley finishing with a 2-0 record against the Huskies before Jim Calhoun exacted his revenge.

Now, the two storied college basketball programs will meet for the first time in more than a decade Sunday with a trip to the Final Four on the line, as UConn survived a 67-63 thriller against Michigan State in the Sweet 16 Friday evening. 

“It’s exciting, UConn-Duke again in a big NCAA Tournament game,” Hurley said on the CBS broadcast post-game. “I’ve seen some of them with Bobby, and now I’m in one.”

Duke and UConn met for the first time in a 1964 regional final matchup, a one-sided affair that saw the Blue Devils take a 35-point halftime lead and cruise to a 101-54 blowout win. UConn was much more competitive when the two teams reunited at Madison Square Garden 12 years later, as the Blue Devils eked out a 64-62 overtime win over a Huskies program still in the pre-Big East era.

The next meeting also went to overtime on a far grander stage, as UConn faced off against Duke in the 1990 Elite Eight with a trip to the school’s first-ever Final Four on the line. UConn held Bobby Hurley to just three points on 0-for-9 shooting from the field, but Christian Laettner dissected the Huskies’ defense with 23 points and he hit an iconic buzzer-beater to lift Duke to a 79-78 win at the Meadowlands. 

After a 0-3 start against the Blue Devils, UConn would reel off four-straight wins under Jim Calhoun, a stretch that included the most consequential of the nine games played between the two programs.

The Huskies’ first NCAA title came on a victory over Duke in the 1999 national championship game. UConn was a No. 1 seed, but the Huskies entered as an underdog against Duke. 

Richard Hamilton’s 27 points to lead the Huskies.

Duke led UConn 41-34 at halftime in the 2004 Final Four with Emeka Okafor limited by foul trouble, but the legendary center burst to life in the second half with 18 points and seven rebounds, and the Huskies finished the game on a 12-3 run to steal a 79-78 thriller — UConn downed Georgia Tech two days later to win a second national title. 

Looking ahead to this year’s matchup, Duke entered as the team to beat in the NCAA Tournament, earning the No. 1 overall seed after following up a 29-2 regular-season campaign with an ACC Tournament victory over Virginia. However, the Blue Devils have appeared more vulnerable in the NCAA Tournament so far, surviving a scare from No. 16 Siena for a 71-65 win in the opening round win to avoid an all-time March Madness stunner before erasing a 10-point deficit against St. John’s Friday evening. 

The game is scheduled to tip off at 5:05 p.m. ET from Washington, D.C., with the action being broadcast on CBS. Grant Hill, a member of the 1991 Duke team that defeated UConn in the Sweet 16, will provide color commentary on the broadcast.