Kentucky and Michigan Schedule London Game, Home-and-Home Series

Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

Kentucky and Michigan will play in London in 2020 before facing off in a home-and-home series in 2021 and 2022, according to Jon Rothstein's report in The New York Times.

The London game is scheduled to be played in December 2020 at O2 Arena, where the NBA has previously played a number of contests. While college basketball regularly has early-season tournaments outside of the United States, a regular-season game scheduled overseas is less common.

The event in London was organized as a fundraiser for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will also feature a game between the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and Marist. U.M.B.C.'s R.J. Eytle-Rock and Daniel Akin are from London.

Following the London game, Kentucky will play Michigan in Ann Arbor in December 2021 and host the Wolverines in December 2022. The home-and-home series is out of the norm for Wildcats coach John Calipari. He ended a similar arrangement with Indiana following a 2011 last-second loss where Hoosiers fans stormed the court to celebrate.

Rothstein reports Calipari's relationship with Michigan coach Juwan Howard contributed to the deal's materialization. Howard reached out to Calipari while pursuing his job last year with the Wolverines.