5 home-and-home opponents I would like to see for Michigan basketball

Looking ahead here are five teams Michigan basketball should schedule in the future. 

In college sports, home-and-home matchups get much more attention in college football. There are fewer non-conference games than in college basketball, so it is a bigger deal when teams step out of the conference for marquee matchups.

They also get the benefit of a whole offseason of hype leading into the game. Michigan usually has had Notre Dame for its marquee non-conference opponent, but the Fighting Irish are off the schedule until 2033. Recently, Michigan basketball has played in the Advocare Classic twice, splitting matchups with Alabama (2012) and Florida (2017). This season, the Wolverines will welcome Washington to the Big House.

You will often see college football games scheduled 10-15 years in advance. In my opinion, until the year that those games are scheduled gets here, they are hard to get excited about.

Sure, it is cool that Michigan is playing Oklahoma in 2025-26 and thinking about planning a trip to Norman. However, few if any players on either current roster will play in those games.

Heck, Jim Harbaugh and Lincoln Riley might both be gone by then. It also looks like the Sooners will be in a new conference. There are so many unknown variables when it comes to scheduling games that far out.

In college basketball, scheduling is much more dynamic and flexible from year to year. Coaches and athletic directors also know exactly what their team looks like and can schedule games to better prepare them for the current season.

For example, if Michigan basketball had a young team comprised of mostly freshmen and sophomores, it may be a better idea to schedule a few more games against mid-majors than schedule Kentucky, Arizona, UNC, and Gonzaga consecutively. It will allow you to play a few more winnable games, gain confidence, and build up the team for conference play.

Of course, ideally, a non-conference schedule will have a good balance of mid-majors and marquee matchups to build up the tournament resume. These are the five non-conference teams I would like to see Michigan Basketball schedule home-and-homes against.

Honorable Mention: Seton Hall was originally going to be included on this list but Michigan is already playing them this season in the Gavitt Tipoff Games.