Michigan Basketball To Host Creighton Next Season In Annual Gavitt Games

The matchup for the 2019-20 Gavitt Games were revealed this afternoon, and it was announced that Michigan would be hosting the Creighton Blue Jays next season.

No date has been revealed yet for the contest, though the annual showdown between the Big East and Big Ten has taken place during the first two weeks of the regular-season each year it has been in existence (since 2015-16).

Creighton finished with a 20-15 mark last year, missing out on an NCAA Tournament bid before advancing to the quarterfinals of the NIT (where it was knocked out by No. 1-seeded TCU).

The club also ended the regular-season with a 9-9 mark in conference play, which was actually tied for a third-place finish in the league.

The Gavitt Games honor the late Dave Gavitt (1937-2011), who was best known for serving as the first-ever commissioner of the Big East from 1979-90.

Including next year's contest, Michigan has now been selected to participate in three of the five Gavitt Games, holding a 1-1 record so far (an 86-73 loss to Xavier in Ann Arbor in 2015, and a 73-46 blowout win at Villanova last November).

The seven other matchups in the de facto Big Ten/Big East Challenge are Villanova at Ohio State, Michigan State at Seton Hall, Purdue at Marquette, Providence at Northwestern, Penn State at Georgetown, Minnesota at Butler and DePaul at Iowa.

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The November showdown with the Blue Jays is just the second known game of Michigan's 2019-20 non-conference schedule, with a Dec. 14 home date against Oregon being the lone other.

U-M will also take part in the Nov. 27-29 Battle 4 Atlantis pre-conference tournament in the Bahamas, and will face three teams out of a loaded field that includes Alabama, Gonzaga, Iowa State, North Carolina, Oregon, Seton Hall and Southern Miss.

The Wolverines' annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge showdown, meanwhile, is expected to be a road affair (U-M defeated North Carolina, 84-67, last year in Ann Arbor).

College basketball teams are now allowed to begin their seasons on the first Tuesday in November, meaning the earliest U-M can play its first game under new head coach Juwan Howard is Nov. 5.

If the Maize and Blue don't play their first game on that date, it is likely to occur within the ensuing day or two.