For much of this season, there was some hope to cling to for Michigan men's basketball.

They had a bunch of close losses until Sunday on the road at Penn State.

Michigan had only lost by double digits in one game.

Or, hey, there'll be plenty of opportunities to win games against quad one or quad two opposition.

Or even, hey, there's plenty of time left in the season.

But now, after Michigan fell by

22 on the road at Penn State on Sunday, those options, that hope really starting to dwindle.

Case in point, Michigan got blown out down the stretch in the first half and throughout the second

half against a team in Penn State that right now is very much on the bubble. This is not a

surefire NCAA tournament team. It's a program that hasn't been there in more than a decade.

They needed this to kind of hold serve. Michigan has a lot still to add to their tournament

resume. They have much still to wade through in terms of teams between Penn State and the Wolverines.

They're running out of time. They're running out of options. And here we sit now with the next

game for Michigan coming up in the month of February. One more full month remains. And

Michigan sits at 11 and 10 overall. They are 5 and 5 in league play, and it does not get any easier from a schedule standpoint.

Michigan has to go to Northwestern, a team that's playing really well coming up on Thursday.

Yeah, there's three home games after that, but those have not been gimmies for the Wolverines.

Hope quickly dwindling at this point, and for the Wolverines, they have to find a way sooner rather than later,

or they will be like they were on Sunday down the stretch in the second half against the Nittney Lions,

simply playing out the stray.

8361, Penn State all over the Wolverines.

Let's break it down here on this post-game edition of Defend the Block.

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