1. New Year brings tough stretch
As the calendar turns to 2020 the Wolverines will need to be ready. They have arguably the toughest stretch of Big Ten games to start of January. They get a week off before this stretch and they better rest up.
It all starts with a road game against Michigan State, then a home game with Purdue before they go on the road against Minnesota and Iowa. It is only once of two times the Wolverines play three out of four games on the road and it comes at three of the hardest places for Michigan to win.
Michigan has had some success at Minnesota lately but it is never easy to go into the Barn and win. The Wolverines, on the other hand, have struggled to win in Iowa City. Neither one of these teams are predicted to be in the top half o the Big Ten right now, but they have talent and they have a great home-court advantage.
Everyone knows that Michigan State is going to be loaded this year and even when they aren’t they are still very tough to beat in East Lansing.
The lone home game during this stretch is against the Purdue Boilermakers and they have a lot of young talent on their roster. It will not be easy even though they lost two of their leading scorers from last year.
Add this all up and it makes for a very difficult stretch for the Wolverines. If they can get ou of this set of games at least 2-2 they will be in great shape. Any better than that and they may be competing for a Big Ten championship at the end of the year.