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UPDATE: The Basketball Hall of Fame and Michigan Basketball have announced the official changes to the Michigan-Kentucky series.
“We know precautions and new guidelines are being created and used every day due to the coronavirus,” head coach Juwan Howard said in a statement. “The Hall of Fame took the time to review what is happening around the world and explore all options — all the safe options for the teams and most importantly the fans. The best thing is this tremendous event isn’t canceled, it’s just delayed.”
Original story follows...
The Michigan basketball team was set to play in a big game overseas in England this December, but the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the matchup all the way back to 2022 per Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn. Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel then confirmed the postponement to The Athletic.
The Naismith Memorial of Fame will announce this week the Kentucky-Michigan game, set Dec. 6 for The O2 Arena in London, will be pushed back to Dec. 2022.
— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) May 19, 2020
Michigan and Kentucky were set to begin a three-year series, now they’ll have to shift the schedule around as the series changes.
Sources: Kentucky and Michigan will not play a game next season as expected.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 19, 2020
Updated multi-year series schedule is as follows:
21-22: Ann Arbor
22-23: London
23-24: Lexington
With international travel grinding to nearly a complete halt, the postponement of a collegiate game across the pond comes as no surprise. Kentucky coach John Calipari expressed reservations about the game taking place back in March. “It is up in the air right now,” Calipari said. “I say ‘up in the air.’ Where is this thing going? We probably have until about June to make that decision — do we do something that’s closer to us? So it is being thought of.”
We’ll have more on this when further details emerge.