Well, it can't get any worse than that for Michigan men's basketball.

And I'm not talking about the outside noise or the criticism or the record or anything along those lines.

Of course, those things could escalate.

When you play at Michigan, you're susceptible to all of that, especially in times like this.

But from a game-to-game standpoint, no result can be more damaging than this one on the

remainder of Michigan's regular season schedule. Central Michigan came in Thursday night,

ranked right around 300th nationally, according to Ken Palm. They'd only earned a pair of wins over

Division I foes. It felt like a get-right spot for Michigan before league play returned on

Sunday for good. That's why you play these games on the court and you don't on paper.

The Chippewas were better on Thursday night, period. And the scoreboard reflected that.

So if it can't get any worse, the question is, can the Wolverines overcome it?

If this is a crossroad in the season, is that a crossroad that trends to the good

or that continues to bottom out for the bad?

Because there's no doubt, this is a defining moment for this team, a defining moment.

Looking back to last year, you know, something Michigan did a pretty good job of in that

unique route to an NCAA tournament birth was that they avoided a truly bad loss.

This for Michigan will be a quad four loss.

Those are rare on any NCAA tournament resume, and it probably forces Michigan to really

bulk up their quad one

and quad two wins to counteract it.

But forget the tournament resume, the rankings, what's coming up ahead.

For Michigan right now, they're going to have to take their lumps, avoid the outside noise

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