Michigan Basketball vs Duke would’ve been better than Tar Heels again

Michigan basketball will face North Carolina in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge for the third time in five years and a matchup with Duke would have been better. 

The much-awaited Big Ten/ACC Challenge schedule was released on Monday and for Michigan basketball, it means another matchup with North Carolina.

Michigan basketball and North Carolina have seen each other quite a bit recently and this will be the third time in five years that the two teams will meet in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Back in 2017, the Wolverines went to Chapel Hill and lost at the hands of North Carolina. Then, in 2018, Michigan returned the favor in Ann Arbor. U-M also beat North Carolina in a preseason tournament in 2019, so it’s not a game fans are dying to see.

Why Duke would have been better

Duke and Michigan? That would have been something and I can’t believe the two teams weren’t paired on Coach K’s final season on the sidelines.

After all, Coach K has a history with Michigan. Starting in 1989, U-M and Duke met in non-conference play for 15 consecutive years. The two programs also met for the 1992 national championship. Coach K coached and Juwan Howard, Michigan’s coach, was on the floor as part of the Fab Five.

And since Coach K is retiring after the season, it would have been the last chance, outside of maybe the NCAA tournament, for Michigan, led by Juwan to take on Duke.

Duke has won 10 of the last 11 games against the Wolverines, but many of those games were during the worst years of the program. The last game was in 2013 when Michigan traveled to Duke. They also met in the 2011 NCAA tournament — a game Michigan lost by two.

Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with Michigan and North Carolina. The two played for the national title in 1993 and with Hubert Davis taking over, it will be an interesting game between two of the game’s best young coaches.

The game also adds to a difficult non-conference schedule that will also feature Kentucky as documented by UMHoops.com:

"“Michigan’s 2021-22 schedule also features home dates with Kentucky and Seton Hall, a trip to UCF, and the MGM Resorts Main Event with Wichita State, Arizona and UNLV. The Wolverines also have a game to make up at Oregon after last year’s originally scheduled game was postponed due to COVID-19.”"

Michigan is “for competitors only” as Howard likes to say, so the Wolverines aren’t going to be afraid of some competition. But for a lot of reasons, Duke would have been a better matchup than another game against North Carolina.