No. 4 Michigan Heads to Top-Ranked Louisville for ACC/Big Ten Challenge

» Fourth-ranked Michigan heads to No. 1 Louisville for its ACC/Big Ten Challenge match-up at the KFC Yum! Center.
» U-M is 8-10 all-time in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
» The Wolverines are coming off winning the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament after knocking off Iowa State, No. 6 North Carolina and No. 8 Gonzaga.
» Going from unranked to No. 4 in the AP poll, U-M posted the largest jump in the poll's 70-year history.
» Zavier Simpson is one assist shy of reaching 500 in his career. He leads the nation with 9.7 per game.

The fourth-ranked University of Michigan men's basketball team (7-0) heads to Louisville, Kentucky, to take on the top-ranked Louisville Cardinals in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Tuesday (Dec. 3) at the KFC Yum! Center. The top-five match-up is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on ESPN with Dave O'Brien (p-by-p), Dick Vitale (analyst) and Kris Budden (sideline) as the broadcast crew.

Who are the Louisville Cardinals?

• The Cardinals are a perfect 7-0 this season after topping Western Kentucky, 71-54, on Friday (Nov. 29), including 1-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play after opening the season with an 87-74 victory at Miami (Nov. 5).
• Louisville has four players scoring in double figures, led by Jordan Nwora at 21.9 points per game. Dwayne Sutton adds 11.1 points and a team-best 8.4 rebounds per contest, while Ryan McMahon chips in 11.0 points per game and Steven Enoch is scoring 10.9 points per contest.
• Nwora was named the preseason ACC Player of the Year as well as a preseason AP All-American. Nwora averaged 17.0 points and 7.7 rebounds per game a season ago.
• The Cardinals rank 19th in the country in rebounding margin, outrebounding their opponents by 12.4 rebounds per contest. Louisville is pulling down 45.0 boards per contest and has four different players (Enoch, Nwora, Sutton and Malik Williams) grabbing more than six rebounds per game.
• Chris Mack is in his second season as head coach at Louisville. In his first season the Cardinals went 20-14 and reached the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Mack came to Louisville following nine seasons as head coach at Xavier, where he led the Musketeers to the NCAA Tournament eight times.

The All-Time Series with Louisville

• Louisville leads the all-time series against Michigan, 3-1. The Wolverines won the most recent meeting against the Cardinals, 73-69, in the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament (March 19, 2017) in Indianapolis, Indiana.
• In that most recent contest, Moritz Wagner scored a game-high 26 points, D.J. Wilson added 17 points, Zak Irvin netted 11, and Derrick Walton Jr. had 10 points. Zavier Simpson saw four minutes of action in that contest against the Cardinals.
• The two schools also met in the NCAA Tournament in 2013 (April 8) when Louisville defeated U-M in the national championship game, 82-76, in Atlanta, Georgia. Trey Burke had a game-high 24 points for the Maize and Blue, while Luke Hancock led the Cardinals with 22 points off the bench.
• The only two previous regular-season meetings came in a home-and-home series during the 1977-78 and 1978-79 seasons. Louisville earned an 88-85 victory in Ann Arbor in the first meeting (Dec. 7, 1977) and the Cardinals swept the two-game series with an 86-84 victory the following season in Louisville (Dec. 6, 1978).
• Both schools have been ranked in the top 25 of the Associated Press Poll during all five meetings between the two schools, including this season's contest.

Wolverine Quick Hitters

• Michigan heads to No. 1 Louisville after winning the 2019 Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas with wins over Iowa State (83-76), No. 6 North Carolina (73-64) and No. 8 Gonzaga (82-64).
• Zavier Simpson has 6+ assists in every game this season and leads the nation and Big Ten with 9.7 assists per game. He needs just one assist (499) to become the fourth Wolverine to reach 500 in a career, joining Gary Grant (731), Rumeal Robinson (575) and Antoine Joubert (539).
• Simpson has not missed a game in his four-year career -- 123 straight.
• Jon Teske, the Big Ten's Co-Player of the Week, is averaging a near double-double with 12.3 points and 9.7 boards.
• Isaiah Livers leads U-M with 17.0 points per game and 21 three-pointers. He has three 20+ point games and has scored in double figures in six games.
• Franz Wagner joined the U-M lineup at the Battle 4 Atlantis. He had missed the first four games after fracturing his right wrist in a preseason practice (Oct. 20).

Wolverines Against the Nation's Best

• Michigan is 2-24 all-time against the Associated Press' No. 1-ranked team.
• The last time U-M played the nation's top team was Dec. 14, 2012 against Arizona. In that game, Arizona used two free throws with five seconds remaining to take a 71-67 lead. After a Spike Albrecht three-pointer, the Maize and Blue trailed by just one with two seconds left. After a quick foul, Gabe York made the first free throw and missed the second to give the Wildcats a two-point win, 72-70. U-M was led by 20 points from Glenn Robinson III, while Caris LeVert had 15.
• U-M's last win over a No. 1-ranked team was against Duke (81-73) at Crisler Center on Dec. 13, 1997. Robert Traylor had 24 points and Louis Bullock had 23 as the Wolverines overcame a 17-point deficit against the Blue Devils, who had defeated their previous opponents by an average of 36 points a game.
• The Wolverines' only other win over a No. 1 team was an 87-85 victory against Wichita State on Dec. 14, 1964. The No. 2-ranked Wolverines used a last-second, 35-foot heave from Cazzie Russell to secure a shocking two-point win.

Michigan in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge

• Michigan will be making its 19th appearance in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge when the Wolverines head to Louisville to take on the Cardinals at the KFC Yum! Center.
• U-M holds an 8-10 ACC/Big Ten Challenge mark, with a 3-6 record in road games and a 5-4 record at Crisler Center.

One of the Leaders and Best

• Zavier Simpson leads the nation and the Big Ten with 9.7 assists per game. He has 68 assists in seven games.
• Simpson has posted 6+ assists in every game with three 10+ assist games.
• Simpson is tied for fourth (Derrick Walton Jr.) in program history with 499 assists in his career. He needs just one more to become the fourth Wolverine to reach 500+ in a career, joining Gary Grant (731), Rumeal Robinson (575) and Antoine Joubert (539).
• This season, Simpson dished a career-best 14 assists against Houston Baptist and had 13 against Iowa State and No. 8 Gonzaga at the Battle 4 Atlantis for the Thanksgiving tournament's single-game record.
• Simpson has three double-doubles this season. He posted his first 20/10 double-dip with 22 points and a career-best 14 assists against Houston Baptist. He then added two more at the Battle 4 Atlantis vs. Iowa State (10 points, 13 assists) and vs. No. 8 Gonzaga (13 points, 13 rebounds). Overall, Simpson has eight career double-doubles with five via points/assists.
• Simpson's 13 assists vs. No. 8 Gonzaga (Battle 4 Atlantis) marked his 11th 10+ assist game. With that tally, he ranks second in school history and needs three more to catch U-M all-time leader Gary Grant (14).

Big Sleep is Not Resting ... At All

• Jon Teske is nearly averaging a double-double with his 13.3 points and 9.7 rebounds.
• So far, Teske has recorded three 10+ rebounding games, including a career-best 15 vs. No. 8 Gonzaga (Battle 4 Atlantis), 13 against Appalachian State and 12 against Houston Baptist.
• Teske has six games of double-figure scoring with a season-high 19 points vs. No. 8 Gonzaga (Battle 4 Atlantis). Overall, he has four games of 15+ points.
• In addition to his scoring, he has grabbed 6+ rebounds in every game this season, including that career best of 15 vs. No. 8 Gonzaga.
• On top of all that, Teske has a team-best 18 blocks and 11 steals.