Rapid reactions to Michigan’s 2024-25 schedule

With practice a week away, Michigan finally has a basketball schedule. The Big Ten announced the conference slate on Thursday afternoon, with times and television announcements coming later, and the Wolverines should play one of the more difficult schedules in the country this season.

Here’s everything you need to know about Michigan’s schedule this season.

We’ll learn about this team in a hurry

Michigan plays two high-major teams in the season’s first 11 days, then six consecutive high-major teams between Thanksgiving week and Christmas. This group won’t have the chance to ease into the season; they will immediately be thrown into the fire.

Big Ten games at the Kohl Center and home against Iowa cement that Fort Myers-to-Charlotte stretch as one of the most pivotal of the season. It’s a bit of a slow burn from Thanksgiving through Christmas, but it is one challenging game after another without any opportunity to come up for air. There might not be many top-ten foes during that stretch, but it is essentially a string of games that should have a one possession spread one after another.

Dusty May’s first road game on the Michigan bench will come at the Kohl Center, where it took seven years for John Beilein to win a game and where Juwan Howard only won behind closed doors. There might not be a better “Welcome to the Big Ten” game on the schedule than that one, even if the Badgers are expected to be down a bit this season.