To me, Michigan's loss at Michigan State on Saturday was at times a microcosm of this season for the Wolverines.

Individually, Hunter Dickinson, he was the team's leader in scoring 18 points, but he was good, not great,

not elite like he has the capability of being.

Dickinson's 8 of 16 from the floor, he had seven rebounds, but he was not consistently a dominant

force. He could have made a few more baskets, and hey, that is a very difficult measure to try to live

up to, but that's what you have for a guy like Hunter Dickinson on this roster. Look at the bench for

Michigan. The Wolverines, they played five guys off the pine. Two of them, I thought,

really provided some instant sparks. In particular, Terris Reed Jr. He was tremendous in his

10 minutes. He looked like he very much belonged on that stage. And in the second half,

Will Cheddar with some punch, some oomph for Michigan in his five minutes. But at the same time,

the Wolverines weren't able to get a full bench game. Joey Baker had been coming off two

really strong performances, yet he was 0 of 5 from the floor, had some looks, wasn't able to

come through with them. Michigan also, from a team standpoint, we've seen it a lot this season where they've

gotten off to a slow start. Michigan only had 18 first half points. They showed fight,

vigor down the stretch, trying to beat Michigan State. But like we've seen several times

against some of the best teams, the Wolverines have faced this season, Kentucky, North Carolina, the Virginia game. Remember

Michigan led early in that one, let it slip away very quickly in the second half, and then

they were playing a possession or two behind down the stretch. The Wolverines will try to grow

from it, we'll try to learn from it, but ultimately this team is just not quite there. And you saw whether it was

the nerves of the moment, the youth experiencing Breslin for the first time, but Michigan had to

kind of get into things. They eventually settled in, made it close down the stretch. In the second

half, in a game where the Wolverines were down by double digits for a pretty decent chunk of time. Michigan was able to cut it to four on a couple of

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