To paraphrase former Michigan basketball star Jalen Rose, the Big Ten gave the people what they wanted. Michigan had five games postponed earlier this season. On Friday night, the Big Ten announced three had been rescheduled -- the three most important, most exciting matchups.
If the latest version of Michigan’s schedule becomes the final version -- no guarantee there -- it’s good for the Wolverines and their fans.
Because of the athletic department’s shutdown for a COVID-19 outbreak, Michigan missed five games scheduled between Jan. 27 and Feb. 11, in this order: at Penn State, Indiana, at Northwestern, Michigan State, and Illinois.
The Wolverines returned on Sunday (Feb. 14) and won at Wisconsin, and beat Rutgers at home on Thursday. They’ll visit Ohio State on Sunday.
The original schedule didn’t have Michigan playing again until the following Saturday (Feb. 27). The Big Ten created that gap before the season to accommodate potential postponements.
If Michigan was going to make up any of its missed games, next week was the time to do it.
Sure enough, Michigan will host Iowa on Thursday. You may recall that Iowa wasn’t listed among Michigan’s aforementioned postponements. This game was moved up, from March 4, to open that date for a different Michigan make-up game. (More on that in a bit.)
Michigan is in first place in the Big Ten with a 10-1 conference record and is No. 3 in the NCAA’s NET rankings. Iowa is 10-4 and ranked No. 5 in the NET. Iowa and Michigan were only set to play each other once this season.
A game with implications for the top part of the conference standings between top-five teams nationally? Yeah, that wasn’t going to be removed from the schedule to make sure Michigan played Penn State again.
See also: Remember when Michigan’s hiring of Juwan Howard was questioned? He does
After Iowa, Michigan will visit Indiana on Feb. 27 as originally scheduled. The Hoosiers are in the middle of the Big Ten at 8-8. That Michigan will play them once instead of twice is no travesty.
On March 2, Michigan hosts Illinois. This is the big one. Illinois is second in the conference at 11-3 (and fourth in the NET). This game had to be the top rescheduling priority for the Big Ten. The date was open for both teams because of another gap the Big Ten built in to the schedule.
To close the regular season, Michigan will play a home-and-home over four days with rival Michigan State. The Wolverines were always planning to play those two days; Iowa was the initial opponent for March 4.
The Big Ten noted in Friday’s schedule release that the league “will continue to work with its member institutions to identify rescheduling options for other games that have been postponed.”
It leaves the door open for Michigan to make up lost games against Penn State, Northwestern, and/or Indiana. If not, Michigan is set to play 17 Big Ten games, including at least one against every other league member.
A handful of teams will come up one game short of the full 20-game schedule. That group includes Penn State and Nebraska, which also had to take COVID-related pauses earlier this season. Their scheduling upon their return was much more aggressive than Michigan’s. Penn State played four games in seven days last month. Earlier this month, Nebraska played seven games in 12 days -- every other day, culminating with a back-to-back against Maryland.
(No word yet from the Big Ten on how a regular-season champion or seeding for the league tournament will be determined should not all teams play the same number of games.)
Michigan head coach Juwan Howard and several of his players made it clear that they were not interested in making up all five lost games, at least not in the regular-season window. That would have required 11 games in 22 days, a grueling stretch for sure. Instead, going back to Thursday’s game against Rutgers, Michigan is set to play seven games in 18 days. There are no back-to-backs and just two instances where the Wolverines have only one day of rest between games. Hosting Iowa at 7:00 p.m. and, two days later, tipping at noon in Bloomington isn’t ideal, but it’s certainly doable.
If the schedule holds, Michigan will finish with nine Big Ten home games and eight on the road. Call it payback for having a home game against Rutgers in New York last season.
Of course, the revised schedule is written in pencil. A COVID issue with Michigan or an upcoming opponent would cause further problems.
That being said, the schedule changes allow for the Wolverines to play the three teams directly below them in the standings (Illinois, 12-4 Ohio State, and Iowa) once each, as originally scheduled. The Michigan-Michigan State rivalry is protected, and the two games to close the season should be fun, even with the Spartans near the bottom of the Big Ten.
There were a lot of moving parts and many directions the Big Ten could have gone. As it related to Michigan at least, common sense prevailed.
Michigan’s remaining regular-season schedule:
Feb. 21: at Ohio State
Feb. 25: Iowa
Feb. 27: Indiana
March 2: Illinois
March 4: Michigan State
March 7: at Michigan State
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February 18, 2021 at 03:00PM
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Michigan basketball’s important, exciting games rescheduled - mlive.com
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