Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from a disputed loss to Virginia

3. This loss should be treated like a wake-up call to play with more urgency

Michigan’s defense faired better than they’ve shown in previous outings. It gave the offense a glimmer of hope to go ahead late, but they just couldn’t deliver.

Learning from these types of experiences can go one of two ways and they are quitting on each other or bonding together and carrying that momentum through the rest of the slate.

Juwan Howard’s bench will have to step up their efforts though. It can’t just be the Dickinson and Jett Howard show every night. Joey Baker is the sixth man off the bench and getting him more involved has got to be a priority.

The upcoming schedule isn’t as daunting as it once appeared to be. Kentucky and North Carolina are not the world beaters that we thought they were three weeks ago.

They won’t be favored in those two, but Michigan proved in the Virginia defeat that they are improving from where they stood following the embarrassing performance in the Legends Classic to Arizona State.