Michigan Basketball: Ranking Wolverines 2019-20 non-conference opponents

Michigan Basketball’s non-conference schedule for the 2019-20 season has a mixture of “cupcake” games and challenging opponents highlighted by the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament over the Thanksgiving weekend. Which games are a must-see and which ones are only for diehards?

The Juwan Howard era has started for Michigan Basketball and there is still lots of uncertainty about how the 2019-20 season will go. Most of the Wolverine faithful seem to be quietly optimistic about their chances this year, but there is probably no one thinking they are a national contender. The same could have been said truly about last years team and all they did was start the season 17-0 and were ranked in the top five most of the year.

Whether Howard and company duplicate that success this year is yet to be seen. But what we do know is Michigan’s non-conference schedule. It is a pretty good mix of mid-major teams that should be wins combined with some challenging games including a trip to the Bahamas to play in an absolutely loaded Battle 4 Atlantis field.

The Wolverines toughest games are clumped together at the end of November into the middle of December. Those games will also include two yet to be determined Big Ten games as the conference will play two games early for the third year in a row.

Last year the Wolverines did not lose a non-conference game on their way to their historic start, but doing that again this year will be a challenge. If they could somehow dot hat again (which is doubtful) then they will once again be the surprise of the country in the early part of the year and maybe take away some doubters. Either way, there are enough good games to get the Wolverine faithful excited and to prepare Michigan for the Big Ten conference which looks to be tough again this year.

The Wolverines have 11 non-conference games and we rank them right here.

11. vs Elon – November 15th

This game is the first game for Michigan in the mainland part of the Battle 4 Atlantis. It is set up as a warmup for the teams actually heading to the Bahamas and that is exactly what this should be for the Wolverines. Elon went just 11-21 last year and even if they are better this year it still shouldn’t be much a game. Fans will still show up to watch them play but besides the diehards, no one is going to really care about this game. The last time the Wolverines played Elon was 2015 and Michigan won by 20. Expect much of the same in this game.