Michigan Releases 1999-2000 Men's Basketball Schedule
7/22/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan announced its 1999-2000 men's basketball schedule today jointly with the Big Ten Conference.
After playing the toughest schedule in the country last season, U-M will continue the trend in 1999-2000 by facing three Final Four teams from a year ago -- Duke, Michigan State and Ohio State -- and seven others that competed in the NCAA Tournament and two in the NIT Tournament.
"I hope that this schedule is more conducive for this particular team," said U-M head coach Brian Ellerbe. "I hope it will allow us to grow and mature as the season goes along given the fact that we are so young and inexperienced at this level and especially with the loss of junior Brandon Smith to an ACL tear. This schedule will help give us a chance to reach our full potential and to see how we can develop as a team."
All Big Ten Conference games will again be televised, and nine Wolverine games will be featured on national television, with five scheduled for ESPN and four scheduled for CBS.
With 27 total games on the schedule, U-M will host 17 games at Crisler Arena for the third time in Michigan history.
"We are really making an effort to create a homecourt advantage given the number of home games," said Ellerbe. "We want our fans, alumni and friends to aid us in developing a true homecourt advantage Michigan basketball needs and deserves."
With no preseason tournaments, the Wolverines will concentrate on their two exhibition and 11 non-conference games to get them ready for the Big Ten season. U-M will play the Double Pump All-Stars (Nov. 10) and the Cuban National team (Nov. 14) in their two exhibition games before opening the regular season against Oakland on Nov. 19.
Michigan's non-conference schedule features some new and some familiar faces and nine of 11 contests at Crisler. First-time opponents on U-M's schedule are Oakland, in its second year of NCAA Division I status, and St. Peter's College. In the first year of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, U-M will take on 1999 NIT participant Georgia Tech on Dec. 1 at the newly completed Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Ga., in one of its two non-conference road games. The Wolverines will play Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Dec. 19 for their other road game.
For the 10th straight year, Michigan will play perennial powerhouse Duke, this season facing the Blue Devils at Crisler Arena on Saturday, Dec. 11.
The schedule continues with in-state rivals Detroit and Western Michigan and last season's Mid-American Conference tournament champion, Kent. Michigan will also face Chattanooga, Duquesne and Towson.
Michigan opens its 16-game Big Ten regular-season schedule on the road at Minnesota on Jan. 5. U-M will face Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin only once in 1999-2000 and meet Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern and Purdue in the traditional home-and-home series. The Big Ten Tournament will be played March 9-12 at the United Center in Chicago.
"Opening up the Big Ten season with back-to-back road games at Minnesota and at Purdue with a young basketball team and without Brandon Smith will make our Big Ten schedule that much more difficult," said Ellerbe. "I believe our conference will be one of the top conferences in the country again this season, and I look for us to have similar representation in the NCAA Tournament as we did last season."
The Wolverines will open practices with Midnight Madness at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 16 and will follow that up three weeks later with the first Maize and Blue scrimmage (Nov. 6). The scrimmage will be approximately 30 minutes following the home football game vs. Northwestern.
Call the Michigan Ticket Office at (734) 764-0247 for all ticket information.
Contact: Tom Wywrot (734) 763-4423
