Michigan and UCF set home-and-home series for men’s basketball

The Michigan Wolverines and University of Central Florida are set to play a home-and-home series in men’s basketball that kicks off this upcoming season, according to a release sent out on Thursday.

The first game in the series will take place at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The return trip will take place at UCF in 2021. The two schools will be playing the first pair of games against each other, as they have not met in their program histories to this point.

Given that there is some doubts about whether or not the college basketball season will start on time given the coronavirus pandemic, it was a bit surprising to see a series announced for this upcoming season. Though, in a scenario where the season begins with conference-only games in January, it would make sense that the date this year is punted to a future season. Michigan needed to replace the Kentucky game on the schedule for this year after the London trip was postponed and did so by sliding in a last-minute replacement.

UCF, coached by Johnny Dawkins, is coming off of a 16-14 season and 7-11 mark in American Athletic Conference play. KenPom had them as the No. 117 team in the country when the season was stopped due to the pandemic.

Michigan’s other scheduled and notable non-conference games include a trip to Oregon on Nov. 14, the Empire Classic in New York (Villanova, Baylor, NC. State) on Nov. 19 and an in-state showdown with Oakland University on Dec. 21.