Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from bad loss to Michigan State

Big Ten title hopes are on life support

Losing to your arch rival, on your home floor, is bad enough. But what makes this loss for Michigan basketball such a hard pill to swallow is how much damage it did to the Wolverines hopes of winning the Big Ten regular-season title.

Before the game, Michigan, Purdue and Michigan State were tied up at 13-3. Now, following the win by Michigan State, the Wolverines are a full game back with three games to go.

One of those games is against Michigan State, on the road. So the Wolverines could even up the head-to-head battle. But on top of that, which will be a tall order, Michigan needs to beat Maryland on the road, another tough task and also hope for a loss by Purdue and that’s just to be co-champs.

The Boilermakers don’t play any ranked teams down the stretch, so if they take care of business, it will be hard to catch them. Michigan gets to play the Spartans and can even the score, but at this point, the Wolverines can’t afford another loss if it hopes to share the conference title.