Michigan
Louisville
Michigan to Travel to No. 10 Louisville for Big Ten/ACC Challenge
11/30/2021 3:05:00 PM | Women's Basketball
» Michigan continues its three-game swing away from Crisler Center, heading to Louisville for the third time in the last five seasons to face the No. 10-ranked Cardinals.
» Louisville marks Michigan's second ranked opponent of the season after U-M knocked off No. 16 Oregon State, 61-52, at the Daytona Beach Invitational.
» U-M is 9-4 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge after rallying for an 84-76 overtime win over Syracuse in the 2019 Challenge.
THIS WEEK
Saturday, Dec. 2 -- at #10 Louisville (Louisville, Ky.), 7 p.m.
TV: ESPN | Live Stats | Live Audio | Live Video
• Complete Game Notes (PDF)
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 12-ranked University of Michigan women's basketball team (7-0) stays on the road this week, traveling to Louisville to face the No. 10-ranked Cardinals (5-1) as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Thursday (Dec. 2) at the KFC Yum! Center. The game is set for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN.
Wolverine Notes
• Michigan is 9-4 all-time in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge after rallying to knock off Syracuse in overtime, 84-76, during the 2019 edition. There was no event held last year. This is the first time that Louisville and Michigan are meeting as part of the Challenge.
• U-M has started out with a 7-0 record for the second consecutive year after starting last season with a program-best 10-0 mark. U-M also started 7-0 in 1999-2000, 2011-12 and 2015-16, with three of the 7-0 starts (2015-16, 2020-21, 2021-22) coming under 10th-year head coach Kim Barnes Arico.
• For the third time in the last five seasons, Michigan is making the journey south to play at Louisville. U-M faced the Cardinals in the 2017 Preseason WNIT and again in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament, both coming at the KFC Yum! Center.
• Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico and Louisville head coach Jeff Walz are back on the same sideline after serving as assistant coaches to Dawn Staley for the USA Basketball U18 and U19 teams in 2014 and 2015. Both teams won gold medals at their international competitions. In addition, Walz served as head coach of the USA Basketball U18 and U19 teams that Naz Hillmon played for, winning a pair of gold medals (2018 FIBA Americas, 2019 FIBA World Cup).
• Senior Naz Hillmon is averaging 21.8 points per game on 59.1 percent shooting, while also grabbing 10.0 rebounds per game. She has four double-doubles on the season and is seventh nationally in scoring. Hillmon is one of four players to be averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.
• Michigan has started the year stingy on the defensive end, allowing just 52.1 points per game to rank 29th nationally and second in the Big Ten in scoring defense. U-M has allowed only one team to score at least 60 points, and that came in a season-opening overtime contest to IUPUI, with the Jaguars scoring 62 points. Michigan held Oregon State to just 52 points and Mississippi State to just 48 points in the last two contests. Both teams entered the contests against Michigan averaging more than 80 points per contest.
• After missing several games with an injury, senior Leigha Brown returned to the Michigan lineup in a pair of wins over Thanksgiving weekend. In U-M's win over No. 16 Oregon State (Nov. 26), Brown scored 10 of her 14 points in the fourth quarter as U-M outscored the Beavers, 21-12, in the final 10 minutes for the win. She followed that up with a 23-point effort in just 25 minutes against Mississippi State (Nov. 27). For her efforts, she was named to the Daytona Beach Invitational all-tournament team. In four games this season, Brown is averaging 14.3 points per game on 45.2 percent shooting.
• No. 10 Louisville (5-1) has won five straight after dropping its season opener to Arizona in South Dakota. The Cardinals are second nationally in scoring defense at 42.8 points per game while scoring 67.8 points per contest on 44.7 percent shooting. Kianna Smith leads UL in scoring at 10.2 points per game, with Emily Engstler (9.7 ppg) and Hailey Van Lith (9.3 ppg) right below.
