Michigan Basketball: Analyzing Wolverines Big Ten schedule for 2019-20
By Adam Childs
2. First two conference games
A few years ago the Big Ten started playing some conference games in December. It started with them needed to back the schedule up a week so they could play at Madison Square Garden for their conference tournament. They have continued to do it to get their 20 conference games in.
Either way, it gives a tease of what is yet to come in the Big Ten portion of the schedule and breaks up the non-conference schedule just a bit.
Until the schedule release, all we knew was that the games were sandwiched by a road game against Louisville and a home game with Oregon. Two teams that look to be partial favorites in their conferences. The two games in between could make a really tough stretch for the Wolverines or give them a bit of a break.
Well, the schedule makers didn’t kill the Wolverines but didn’t exactly make it easy either. The Wolverines host Iowa first and then travel to Illinois. As we stated earlier the Hawkeyes aren’t expected to be near the top of the conference but they still have Joe Wisekamp and others that can score a lot of points. It will not be an easy game for the Wolverines.
Illinois is the team that is possibly the most intriguing int he conference this year. They beat some good teams last year but mostly came up just short all year long. But they return Ayo Dosunmu who is a preseason All-Big Ten player. The Illini look poised to make a jump in the conference and if they keep playing aggressive defense they will be a tough out.
The schedule could have been worse because they could have got a combination of Michigan State, Ohio State, and Maryland (three teams picked at the top) and made a brutal stretch for the Wolverines. Instead, they get two winnable games, but they must play well.
This will be another big set of games for the Wolverines and if they want to compete they need to win these two and get off to a good start.