University of Minnesota men’s basketball head coach Richard Pitino announced the upcoming 2018-19 schedule for the Gophers on Thursday. The announcement coincides with the Big Ten Conference revealing game time and television broadcast information for all of its games this season.
“We set up our schedule this season to provide a challenging test for our team as they get ready for Big Ten play,” Pitino said. “We’re excited to have five Power Five opponents in our non-conference, including the Utah game at home. With a 20-game Big Ten schedule this year, I think our team will have a chance to get better early in the season.”
Following an exhibition game against in-state foe Minnesota Duluth on Thursday, November 1, the Gophers will begin the season with a pair of home games. The season gets underway on Tuesday, Nov. 6 against Omaha, followed six days later by a meeting with Pac-12 opponent Utah at Williams Arena (Monday, Nov. 12)
The next stretch sees the Gophers away from the Barn for the longest time during the year. They will travel across the border for the Vancouver Showcase, facing Texas A&M (Sunday, Nov. 18) and Santa Clara or Washington (Tuesday, Nov. 20). After the Thanksgiving holiday, the Gophers will visit Boston College in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge (Monday, Nov. 26) before returning to the Twin Cities for a matchup with Oklahoma State at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis (Friday, Nov. 30).
Minnesota visits Ohio State (Sunday, December 2) before hosting Nebraska (Wednesday, Dec. 5) in the early season conference matchups. The remainder of the non-conference slate is filled out by home games against Arkansas State (Saturday, Dec. 8), North Florida (Tuesday, Dec. 11), North Carolina A&T (Friday, Dec. 21) and Mount St. Mary’s (Sunday, Dec. 30).
After New Year’s Day, nine home and nine road Big Ten contests await the Gophers as they march towards the Big Ten Tournament, which returns to Chicago from March 13-17 at United Center.
Minnesota will have at least 26 games on a national television network, as part of the conference television rights agreements with ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Fox Sports 1 and the Big Ten Network. The remaining home games will be broadcast on the BTN Plus subscription streaming service.