Michigan basketball to play neutral-site conference game against Penn State next season?
Michigan Wolverines basketball may have an interesting scheduling wrinkle in store for the 2023-24 season, head coach Juwan Howard revealed on the Inside Michigan Basketball radio show Monday night. Howard and Co. are working on scheduling a Big Ten matchup with Penn State at the Palestra.
The game would be close to home for Philadelphia-area native and former St. Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli, who’s been the Wolverines’ associate head coach for Howard’s entire tenure, which began in 2019.
“That’s the plan for next year, playing Penn State,” Howard said. “We’re working on that, where we can play that game possibly in the Palestra, for Coach Martelli. He deserves it, he really deserves it.”
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Michigan just played at Northwestern, near Howard’s hometown of Chicago. He caught up with family and friends after the 68-51 win, holding up the bus for a few minutes to do so. Howard and hosts Brian Boesch and Terry Mills joked that Martelli would take even longer to leave due to his immense network in Philadelphia.
It’s unclear if it would be Michigan or Penn State giving up the home game, though history says it’s more likely it would be the latter. The Nittany Lions did so this year, playing Purdue at the venue, which has been nicknamed the “Cathedral of College Basketball.”
The Palestra was built in 1927 and resides on the University of Pennsylvania campus. It has a capacity of 8,725 and is the home of Penn men’s basketball, women’s basketball and men’s wrestling. St. Joseph’s played its home games at the Palestra in 2008-09, when Martelli was its head coach.
Michigan has gotten creative with its schedule in the past. The Wolverines took on Eastern Michigan at Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit this past November. They also gave up a home game to play Rutgers at Madison Square Garden during Howard’s first season in 2019-20.
Juwan Howard focused on ‘one game at a time,’ not NCAA Tournament chances
Michigan is 13-10 overall and likely needs at least six more victories to be in the NCAA Tournament conversation on Selection Sunday. However, Howard and Co. aren’t looking that far ahead, instead focusing on the task at hand.
“The NCAA Tournament is so far away right now,” Howard said. “You’ve just gotta go one game at a time, and that’s the focus. Right now, our next focus is on Nebraska.
“[Michigan’s players are] so young and pure, when you guys get to talking about the NCAA Tournament, they can’t help but to have a comment about that, but let’s just stay dialed into the opponent at hand — one game at a time. That’s the part I try to keep them focused on.
“You can’t look ahead, because then you start worrying about what this team is doing, how this team can help you. Worry about yourself. How can we get better? That’s been our focus, that’s been our message in the locker room.”
The Wolverines have suffered some tough losses and gone through challenging stretches, but have stuck together and appear to be a close-knit group. That could go a long way during Michigan’s stretch run.
“We have a young team, so there are going to be some times where we have some ups and downs,” Howard explained. “That’s a part of growth. But it’s nice to see that they all compete hard. It’s good to see that you’re staying the course, no matter what, all the naysayers, all the doubters or whomever, they’re just staying the course, staying locked in and making sure that the tight fist does not separate.
“That tight fist is what matters most — the guys in the locker room, the coaching staff, the support staff, the managers. We’re all staying together.”
Michigan and Nebraska tip off at 6:30 p.m. ET Wednesday night at Crisler Center. The Wolverines will finish off a three-game home stand with a Saturday night showdown against Indiana.
