Michigan Basketball: 3 things we learned in loss to Wisconsin

Michigan basketball lost its first game of the season Saturday against Wisconsin and here are three lessons we learned from the Wolverines loss.

Over the years, the Kohl Center has been a house of horrors for the Michigan basketball team and Saturday, playing at Wisconsin turned out to be a nightmare once again.

After starting the season 17-0 for the first time in school history, Michigan basketball went to the one gym that has perplexed John Beilein more than any other and against a Wisconsin team that had lost four of its previous five games, the Wolverines played by far their worst game of the season.

The 64-54 defeat was only the second time this season that Michigan didn’t score at least 60 points and the first time it failed to score 30 in a half. The Wolverines were held to 27 points in each 20-minute frame.

While Michigan struggled mightily in the second half, making just seven field goals compared to eight turnovers. At the same time the offense went stagnant, the defense collapsed as the Badgers scored 39 points in the second half and the last seven to win by double digits.

Wisconsin is a quality team so it wasn’t a bad loss in that regard, however, it was ugly and sloppy. It also came after a six-day layoff and if there is one thing we have learned in the last month, the Wolverines don’t play well after an extended rest.

A loss was always going to happen at some point, but here is what we learned from the first defeat of the 2018-19 season.