ATLANTA — Georgia Tech will play the first college basketball game in Atlanta’s Philips Arena when the Yellow Jackets host Michigan Dec. 1 in the inaugural ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be nationally televised by ESPN.
Philips Arena will open next fall as the home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers. Tech will also play Stanford at Philips Arena on Dec. 11 in the annual Delta Air Lines Classic for Kids.
The Yellow Jackets return all five starters from last year’s squad that finished 15-16 and earned a berth in the National Invitation Tournament. Michigan posted an 11-18 record in 1998-99 but features one of the nation’s top recruiting classes. The two teams last met in the 1995 Preseason NIT, when Tech downed the Wolverines, 77-61, at Madison Square Garden for third place. The Jackets hold a 3-2 advantage in the series.
The ACC/Big Ten Challenge features 10 games between schools from the two conferences. The Challenge begins on Tuesday, Nov. 30, with Wisconsin at Wake Forest (7 p.m.), Iowa at Maryland (7:30 p.m.), Virginia at Minnesota (9:30 p.m.) and Duke versus Illinois at the United Center in Chicago, Ill. (9 p.m.). In other games on Dec. 1, NC State plays at Purdue (7:30 p.m.), North Carolina hosts Michigan State (9 p.m.), Florida State plays at Northwestern (9:30 p.m.) and Clemson travels to Penn State (time TBA).
