Later on, you'll hear head coach Juan Howard talk about this loss to Illinois on Thursday night.

And coach Howard, in a word, described the second half performance from Michigan.

Unacceptable.

Illinois outscored Michigan 51 to 37.

They turned what was a one point halftime lead into a 15 point victory.

And it's certainly frustrating because

Michigan is facing an Illinois team that really doesn't try to decode what it's going to bring

to the table. They are going to be basically the same, no matter the personnel, year in and year

out. And most importantly, they are going to be a menace to handle inside the arc.

They came in leading the Big Ten in rebounding, second in rebounding margin,

and third nationally in two point percent defense.

Now, Michigan this season has had success offensively,

and that certainly continued in this one.

The Wolverines were north of 50% from two.

Threes didn't drop. A lot of things didn't go Michigan's way. But as per usual,

Michigan's offense hung around. It did enough against a good defensive team. But as Coach

Howard will describe, the want to, the desire, the toughness, just wasn't quite there against

an Illinois team that does what they do in winning efforts outrebounded Michigan by 10.

They had 16 second chance points, 13 offensive rebounds, 42 points in the paint, and two

different players with double doubles, led by a tremendous performance yet again from a really impressive senior in Coleman Hawkins who had 21 points 10 rebounds made three threes and continued a really good senior season for him you know in the first Michigan hung around. They went deeper into their rotation than

they had maybe the entire season with nine players appearing by the midway point of the first

half. Michigan was down just one at the break. And yeah, you can look for positives. You'll hear

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