5 home-and-home opponents I would like to see for Michigan basketball
By Alex Hinton
Kansas
Michigan basketball has a three-game series with Kentucky beginning this season at the Crisler Center. Michigan has an intense history with Duke, dating back to coach Juwan Howard’s playing days with the Fab Five.
It appears schedule makers are trying to force a new rivalry with North Carolina. The Wolverines have played the Tar Heels in three of the past four seasons, with another matchup set in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge this season.
Michigan plays Indiana every year and just played UCLA in the Elite Eight in 2021, along with a recent home-and-home in 2016 and 2017. If Michigan’s plan to establish itself as a new-age blue blood is to go through all of the other blue bloods, that would leave Kansas as next on the list.
Michigan has only matched up with the Jayhawks eight times historically, winning six of those meetings. The most recent matchup came in the 2013 Sweet Sixteen and was one of the best college basketball games of all time. Of course, any future meeting with Kansas will provide an excellent reason for the broadcast team to rehash it.
With the conference realignment cycle starting to spin again it is possible that the next time Kansas and Michigan match up on the hardwood, they will both be members of the Big Ten.
If that is the case, that would great for the Big Ten from a basketball perspective. Kansas is a top-five basketball program and its addition could cement the Big Ten as the best basketball conference in the country.
With the trajectory that Juwan Howard has the program on, Michigan and Kansas would battle for many Big Ten regular-season and conference tournament championships. Many of those matchups would likely feature both programs in the top 10 as well.