Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from a fatal loss to Indiana

Michigan basketball was missing a signature win on their resume and they could not pick it up in a gut-wrenching loss to Indiana.

Trayce Jackson-Davis broke the seal on the scoreboard with a dunk to get things going in a raucous Crisler center on Saturday night. It was mostly all Michigan basketball after that moment until Indiana cut the gap to four at halftime.

The two teams maintained a close pace in the second. Indiana’s defense shut Michigan out on the final possession of the day and the last five minutes or so and crushed Michigan’s hopes once and for all with a 62-61 win in Ann Arbor.

Here are the three takeaways.

1. Michigan’s bubble may have finally burst

A win over Indiana would have put Michigan basketball in second place in the conference and on pace for a double-bye in the Big Ten tournament. Instead, it’s a back-breaking loss that can linger, if Michigan lets that happen. The Wolverines still have several opportunities left, but can’t afford to lose any more games in the regular season and that’s practically impossible.

Michigan led most of the evening but crumbled in crunch time. They couldn’t make a basket in the last couple of minutes and let Indiana steal one that should have been theirs. It’s another close call to a ranked team that will probably send them to the NIT. They have now lost to four ranked schools by a total of 12 points. That’s beyond frustrating.

Michigan basketball played like a tournament-tested squad that belonged for about 35 minutes or so in this one but reverted back to their earlier season form in the final minutes where they couldn’t close the deal. It cost them dearly and now the three-game winning streak is snapped and all the momentum they had is gone.