Michigan Basketball: Louisville will offer early test for Juwan Howard

Michigan basketball will take on Louisville in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in what will be a big early season test for Juwan Howard and the Wolverines.

Juwan Howard‘s first season as the head coach of Michigan basketball is going to be must-see TV and Thursday morning, we found out one of the Wolverines big matchups of the 2019-20 season.

We already knew of course that Michigan basketball will play host to Creighton in the Gavitt Games Nov. 12 at the Crisler Center. UM will also play host to Oregon in a non-conference matchup, while also taking part in the Battle of Atlantis, which features teams such as Alabama, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, Seton Hall and Southern Miss.

But thanks to a report from Jon Rothstein of Sports Illustrated, we also know that Michigan will travel to Louisville in early December to take on the Cardinals as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Of course, when Michigan and Louisville meet on the basketball court in brings up plenty of intrigue due to the recent NCAA tournament history between the two programs.

Louisville defeated the Wolverines for the national championship back in 2013, then, in 2017, seventh-seeded Michigan, led by a determined Moritz Wagner, upset the second-seeded Cardinals on the way to the Sweet 16.

This will be the first regular-season matchup since those tournament matchups and each program will have a different head coach. Chris Mack will be heading into his second season leading the Cardinals, who ranked 10th in Andy Katz recent power rankings after Jordan Nwora and Stephen Enoch withdrew from the NBA draft.

Michigan will be under the direction of Howard, who could come into this season with a highly-ranked team had Jordan Poole and Ignas Brazdeikis come back as Nwora and Enoch did, but with Zavier Simpson, Jon Teske, Isaiah Livers and a slew of up-and-coming four-star prospects, the Wolverines won’t be a pushover.

The game at Louisville does cap a very tough non-conference schedule in Howard’s first season. Creighton and Oregon, the two home games, are also among Katz top 50 teams. Creighton is No. 36, Michigan is 41st and Oregon is 45th.

Those games are at home and should be winnable, although as Oregon seems to be in on a bunch of graduate transfers, so that matchup could be more difficult down the road. Louisville will be the first big road test under Howard and should be a measuring-stick game for next year’s team.

At this point, we don’t know exactly what the roster will look like heading into next season and we don’t know what kind of coach Howard will be, but on Dec. 3 in Louisville, we will find out a lot about the 2019-20 Michigan basketball team.