According to a report from college basketball insider Jon Rothstein, Dusty May and Michigan are set to face Duke in a late non-conference matchup next season:
The Michigan Wolverines will face the Duke Blue Devils at a neutral site in February during the 2025-26 season, according to college basketball insider Jon Rothstein .
Neither school has officially announced this news or when the game will take place, but Rothstein said the game will be played at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
Michigan has only faced the blue blood school 11 times since 1998, with Michigan losing 10 of those 11 games. All-time, Duke has won 22 of the 30 matchups, including the National Championship in 1992.
Michigan’s lone victory over Duke in the past two decades came in Ann Arbor on Dec. 6, 2008. Michigan’s leading scorer in the 81-73 victory was Deshawn Sims (28 points), while Duke’s leading scorer was its current head coach Jon Scheyer (16 points).
The most recent matchup was a 79-69 Duke win during the 2013-14 season, with Caris LeVert leading the Wolverines with 24 points.
Scheyer took over for Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski in 2023. Duke hasn’t missed a beat since Scheyer took over, with Duke — led by Cooper Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft — coming off a Final Four appearance this past year.
Michigan, of course, is coming off a historically fast turnaround. In Dusty May’s first season, Michigan tripled its win total from the previous year, won the Big Ten Tournament and made it to the Sweet Sixteen for the 19th time in program history.
While Michigan playing a non-conference game this late in the season in the midst of Big Ten play is a little odd, it’s starting to become more common. Duke blew out Illinois in February this past season in a late February game at Madison Square Garden.
May has not shied away from high-profile non-conference matchups like this. Two months after being hired , Michigan announced it would play in the Jimmy V Classic against John Calipari and Arkansas.
I love this news for the Wolverines. You only get so many opportunities to test your team in non-conference play, and a matchup with a blue blood like Duke a month before the NCAA Tournament will serve as a solid barometer for where the team is at. If you want to have a seat at the table among the elite in the sport, winning games like this certainly helps.
How do you feel about this matchup, and who else do you want to see Michigan face in non-conference play? Let us know in the comments.