Tuesday night's loss at Mackey Arena to second ranked Purdue felt like a microcosm for Michigan men's

basketball season because there were a lot of different attempts to try to solve the puzzle, to slow down Purdue, to get back into the game.

And yet every new rotation that Michigan used, every new tactic that they employed, Purdue had an answer and then some.

Michigan never led. Purdue led by double figures for the final 33 game minutes or so,

and it wasn't even a banner day for Zach Eadie. Michigan made him work, 16 points on 13 shots

for the reigning unanimous national player of the year,

yet Purdue continues to come at you in waves with a ton of talent, led by a great grad

transfer in Lance Jones, who has really added an element to this team on both ends of the

floor. A lot of teams, maybe every team that

heads to Purdue as a visitor this season, will suffer a similar pass-fail fate of losing.

But the way this played out and the fact that Michigan just never really had a chance in this

one tried a ton of different options, different players, different

rotations, some because of foul trouble, some because of just simple math of trying to

figure out how to stop the wave. It's kind of how this season has gone. Michigan has found

itself in a lot of difficult spots. They haven't been able to have a lot of success.

And yeah, you got to keep trying,

but right now the Wolverines are trying to avoid the margin of this Tuesday night loss,

have that represent what this season looks like. And unfortunately, here 19 games in,

it certainly looks like that is a very distinct possibility.

Michigan is now 7 and 12.

They fall by 32 in West Lafayette.

Terry, Coach Howard and I break it down here on Defend the Block.

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