Michigan basketball will face TCU, ex-Wolverine this season

The Michigan men’s basketball team will face multiple ex-Wolverines this season. Michigan announced a home-and-home series with TCU on Thursday. The Horned Frogs will visit Crisler Center on Nov. 15.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Frankie Collins, the point guard who played his freshman season at Michigan in 2020-21 and the past two seasons at Arizona State. Collins transferred to TCU this offseason.

Michigan will go to Fort Worth, Texas, during the 2025-26 season.

Thursday’s news adds another challenging opponent to Michigan’s strong nonconference schedule. TCU went 21-13 last season, losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament as a 9 seed to 8 seed Utah State. The Horned Frogs went 9-9 in the competitive Big 12 in Jamie Dixon’s eighth season as head coach. They have made the NCAA Tournament each of the past three years, reaching the second round twice.

Michigan will also play Wake Forest (Nov. 10), Miami Ohio (Nov. 18), two of a trio of teams (South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Xavier) in the Fort Myers Tip-Off (Nov. 25 and 27), Arkansas (Dec. 11), and Oklahoma (Dec. 18). Of that group, Michigan’s lone home game is against Miami Ohio. It’s reasonable to think Michigan’s remaining four nonconference games will be against non-major opponents at Crisler Center.

The TCU matchup gives Collins a second shot at his former school. He previously helped Arizona State blow out Michigan in Brooklyn during the 2022-23 season.

Collins was grad transfer DeVante’ Jones’ backup during their lone season at Michigan. When Jones got hurt, Collins started Michigan’s 2022 NCAA Tournament opener against Colorado State and played well. Michigan beat Tennessee in the second round as Collins again played heavy minutes. He transferred the next offseason after Michigan brought in another grad transfer point guard, Jaelin Llewellyn from Princeton. Collins was a two-year starter in Tempe. This past season, he led the Sun Devils with 13.8 points and 3.2 assists per game.

This season, Michigan will also visit USC, Terrance Williams II’s new school, in a Big Ten matchup. There are several other ex-Wolverines still playing college ball.

Michigan has faced TCU just once, winning at home on Dec. 13, 1962.