Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from the Ohio State win

3. Michigan has to bottle this momentum with a top 15 team coming to Ann Arbor Thursday

The Illini are coming to town this week and have not lost to Michigan basketball since 2019. Juwan Howard was still in the association. The Illini lost to Maryland at home Sunday night and are still without Terrance Shannon Jr. Everyone is currently chasing Wisconsin which is the only undefeated squad left in the conference after a quarter of the way through the schedule.

Dug McDaniel will continue to be out for the Purdue, Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern and the second showdown with Illinois because of his academics. Jaelin Llewellyn will start on his behalf. He played admirably at Maryland in the first 20 minutes, but only made one point in the second half of that loss where they collapsed again.

Michigan's schedule doesn't get any easier so getting this win could change their fortunes, but that's highly unlikely to happen. Their hope for a return to the NIT is in grave doubt. The season was heading in the right direction following the first three games, then the Long Beach State loss happened and the wheels fell completely off. At this point they'll take anything positive that they can get. their hands on.