Men’s Basketball: Northwestern announces 2018-19 conference schedule

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Daily file photo by Noah Frick-Alofs

Chris Collins observes from the sidelines. Collins and the Wildcats begin he 2018-19 season on Nov. 2 with an exhibition against McKendree.

Peter Warren, Sports Editor


Men’s Basketball


Northwestern’s conference schedule was announced Tuesday, filling out its 2018-19 regular season slate.

The Wildcats will open their Big Ten schedule on Dec. 1 with an away matchup with Indiana before returning home to Welsh-Ryan Arena to play 2018 NCAA Tournament runners-up Michigan on Dec. 4.

This is the second-straight season NU will play two conference games during the first week of December. The Cats return to conference games on Jan. 2 in East Lansing, Michigan when they take on Michigan State.

While NU does not play more than two road games in a row, it will go through a stretch beginning in the end of January that features five of seven games away from Evanston. Those five road contests are against Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, Ohio State and Wisconsin.

NU ends the regular season with four of its final five games being played at home. The four home games include battles against Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin and a season-ending clash with Purdue.

The Cats will play Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin in home-and-home series during the year.

Last season, the Big Ten played its conference tournament a week earlier than usual in order to play at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This year, the Big Ten Tournament returns to its normal time slot in the week before the NCAA Tournament and will be contested in Chicago.

For the first time ever, Northwestern will play 20 games against Big Ten opponents. The Big Ten is the only Power 5 conference in the country that plays 20 conference games.

The release of the conference schedule comes six days after NU announced its non-conference schedule. The Cats will play 11 non-conference games this year, including eight games at Welsh-Ryan and three games in California at the Wooden Legacy Classic.

NU begins the season on Nov. 2 with an exhibition game against Division II McKendree, which will be the first time the Cats will be playing at Welsh-Ryan since March 5, 2016.

NU’s first regular season game comes six days later against New Orleans. The Cats first scheduled game against a Power 5 opponent comes against Georgia Tech in Evanston on Nov. 28 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge game. The two teams faced off last year in the crossover matchup, with the Yellow Jackets defeating NU on a last-second buzzer beater.

After its two-game conference stretch at the beginning of December, the Cats have four more non-conference games scheduled against Chicago State, Columbia, DePaul and Oklahoma.

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