Michigan Basketball Looks For Some Easy Wins In Non-Conference Schedule

Michigan basketball head coach John Beilein announced his team’s 14-game non-conference schedule on Wednesday, and mostly it’s what you would expect from a non-conference schedule: some easy wins and at most a couple of challenges.

You might be tempted to dismiss this as a non-news item, but the early season for a major basketball program like Michigan basketball’s can often mean as much as landing that skinny, five-star stud from the elite prep school.

The Wolverines’ season opens with an exhibition game—the only one on the schedule—against Armstrong State on Nov. 4. What’s most notable about that game is that it marks the return of Michigan Basketball legend Cazzie Russell to Crisler Center, more commonly known as “the house that Cazzie built.” (Russell never played at Crisler during this three-year career with the Wolverines, but more than anyone he helped to put the Michigan basketball program on the map.)

After Armstrong State comes (in order) Howard, IUPUI (Indiana), Marquette, Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Mount St. Mary, Virginia Tech, Kennesaw State, Texas, UCLA, Central Arkansas (hello, Scottie Pippen!), Eastern Maryland Shore, and Furman.

If you’ve never heard of one or two of those schools (or weren’t sure they even had a men’s basketball program), you can be forgiven because the non-conference schedule is a time for a program like Michigan’s to score some easy wins and to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Also, the pep band learns to play “Hail to the Victors” in their sleep.

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This is also why USA Basketball, for example, brings a team like Argentina to Las Vegas for an exhibition game before the Rio Olympics begins. It gives the NBA all-stars a chance to shine, and the coaches get to see what they have. (In case you missed it, the USA team beat Argentina’s national team last Friday night 111-74.)

Take a look at another above-average basketball program, and you’ll see that the same strategy seems to be at work.

Last year’s NCAA champions, the Villanova Wildcats, haven’t released their schedule yet, but the North Carolina Tarheels will be facing Temple, Fairfield, Wofford, Northern Iowa, Northwestern, Kansas State, Maryland, and Davidson in their first month. With the exception of Temple, not a lot of challenges there.

One interesting wrinkle in the schedule is the back-to-back games with Texas (at home on Dec. 6) and UCLA (a road game on Dec. 10). These two games are not easy wins, and putting them on the schedule a month into the season may be a hopeful sign for Michigan after a couple of disappointing (and injury-plagued) years.

One other wrinkle: The Wolverines will not be playing the Cincinnati Bearcats as had been anticipated. Michigan’s athletic director Warde Manuel announced that the series with Cincinnati had to be delayed because of a conflict on the academic calendar. The game with the South Carolina Gamecocks was a late substitution, and will turn into a home-and-home series.

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The Big Ten schedule has not been finalized, but matchups are set and will include Illinois, Indiana, Michigan State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin at home and on the road, with single home games against Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State, and Purdue , and single road games against Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Rutgers.

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