Michigan basketball, Ohio State ask Big Ten to make rivalry an annual two-game series

Posted by author February 18, 2025 Basketball

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Michigan basketball coach Dusty May hinted that Ohio State may become a protected matchup for the Wolverines.
Currently, Michigan State is Michigan’s only protected matchup, ensuring a home-and-home series each season.

The Michigan basketball program may soon have two protected double-dip rivalry matchups.

When the Big Ten expanded to 18 teams this past season, it did so knowing each opponent would play all other 17 teams and see three teams twice. For most schools, those three additional matchups will rotate, however some have protected rivalries to ensure there is a home game every year for both sides.

For Michigan, the lone protected home-and-home series is with rival Michigan State. On Sunday, shortly after the Wolverines knocked off the Buckeyes in Columbus, head coach Dusty May implied there’s a good chance OSU gets added to that list, too.

May said he met with OSU coach Jake Diebler in California, “Big Ten country” as May called it, for league meetings last year when Diebler, in his first full season with the Buckeyes, approached May with an idea.

“He said ‘Hey, are you good with, let’s try to do this where we play a home and home every year,'” May said of Diebler’s thought. “Obviously, it’s hard, because it’s (fitting in) two rivalries instead of one, it’s just, it’s what’s good for the game, it’s good for the sport, good for our players, less travel, big for TV, big for the fan bases.”

The league went to a 20-game format ahead of the 2018-19 season and since that year, Michigan and OSU have met once half the time and twice half the time, alternating the amount of meetings per season.

“I love being a part of this game,” Diebler said postgame. “I was asking anybody that would listen to make this a doubleheader every single year when we were out in California. I think our fans deserve that, both schools deserve that.”

If the first meeting in the May-Diebler era was any indication of what’s to come, a war is beginning between U-M and OSU. The two sides changed leads 16 times and were tied on 11 occasions Sunday afternoon, before the contest came down to the final 10 seconds.

Michigan led by two and OSU had one final look at the bucket, but leading scorer Bruce Thorton air-balled a floater from six feet, Michigan got the clinching rebound with .2 seconds left and held on for an 86-83 win on the road.

“I anticipate every single game being like this − hard fought till the very end, with great support from the fans, with great interest throughout college basketball,” May said. “We both agreed even though it might not be as fun as it could be − gut-wrenching preparation and anticipation for the game because of how much it means − but we both agreed going forward we’d like for that to happen.

“I don’t know if we can do a quick flip next year or if it happens the year after that, but yeah, we both requested that from the league. So it was a lot of fun competing against those guys, because we have a lot of respect (for them).”

Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.