I don't think I'm alone in saying that I did not see that coming. Not that Michigan would lose to Rutgers.

If you've been following this team, if you've been following the Big Ten as a whole, you need to expect the unexpected.

The league is congested outside of Purdue and Minnesota at both ends of the spectrum.

And from a Michigan standpoint, almost every game has gone down to the

wire. It's tough to determine what kind of team you're going to get game in and game out. And it was

really a tale of two halves. Michigan in the first half led by three. And then who could have saw

that type of the second half coming. Michigan only scored 22 points.

11 of them came at the free throw line. Michigan was four of 21 from the floor and they were

outscored by 15 against a Rutgers team. They beat at their place earlier this season by 13 points.

We've said it several times down the stretch this season, that a certain game,

a certain loss has been the microcosm of a season. But I think this is kind of a reflection of

just how narrow the margin is and just how much you have to respond to any sort of adversity,

both within the course of a game and over the course of an entire season.

Michigan played, to me, two of its best games of the season coming into the Big Ten tournament.

Yet, because margin for error is thin, because this league is good and because Champaign and Bloomington are really tough to play,

Michigan went winless in those two games.

On Thursday, Michigan did not deliver a winning performance.

They went out one and done in a Big Ten tournament and only scored 50 points.

It was something that no, no one could have realistically seen coming the way that this all went

down considering what happened last week.

But it doesn't matter.

On paper, you don't play these games.

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