On Saturday, I talked about the differences in the Michigan-Iowa matchups from game one,

a Wolverine's win, to game two, the loss on Saturday at Chrysler Center.

From Saturday to Tuesday night in East Lansing, the similarities were striking.

And not only were they striking, but boy, they reared their ugly head emphatically yet again.

Both Saturday and on Tuesday night, Michigan

led by two at the break. And in the second half, the opposition dominated. Michigan State outscored

the Wolverines 48 to 27 after halftime. In terms of efficiency, well, Michigan State shot 60%

from the floor in half number two.

They scored 48 total points in the paint, and they slowed down after some early

turnovers to prevent that from even being a factor.

18 fast break points, 7 of 10 shooting for Jade Naken's, who seemingly was always open,

and he almost always hit it. The similarities certainly are

there from Saturday to Tuesday, but when you are in a hostile environment at your rivals arena,

that magnifies things. And it magnifies where Michigan is right now. The Wolverines have now

lost nine of ten. They find themselves in a haunting, frustrating, and seemingly never-ending cycle of similar results.

They've lost 9 of 10 at this point.

They sit 2 and 8 in Big 10 play.

But when you have such striking similarities yet, the environment, the location of it, it just magnifies it, it really makes you wonder what can you do from here?

How can you rescue the season that is very, very quickly going arrive?

8162, the final, all Michigan State in the second half.

We'll break it down with Terry Mills and Coach Howard here on Defend the Block.

We're talking Michigan basketball.

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