There's no sugar-coding it. Thursday's loss to UCF is a tough one to swallow for a number of reasons.

In terms of the in-game context, first, Michigan surged out of half-time. The Wolverines put together a

9-1 run to balloon what was a four-point lead at the break to a game high 12. Then UCF seemingly

couldn't miss. The Knights went on a 19-2 run at one point. They shot 72% in the second

half and they ultimately outscored the Mazin Blue 53 to 27 over the game's final 17-ish minutes.

The record slash resume slash NCAA tournament context is tough too. This was a quad one opportunity in the Wolverine's

final non-conference game of the season. And Michigan missed out on a few such chances earlier

in the year. The home loss to Seton Hall really stings now. Throw in the losses in Vegas to Arizona,

a really good team and at North Carolina, another really good team.

And any, Michigan surely played a challenging non-conference schedule, but the rewards, at least

in terms of wins for that resume against tough competition, just didn't get there.

There is some good news. Michigan plays in one of the nation's toughest conferences.

Quad-1 opportunities litter the remainder of the schedule.

And some of the issues that plagued the Wolverines early on have been short up,

or at least are trending in the right direction.

Devante Jones, I thought, had his best game as a Wolverine on Thursday night.

Michigan's turnovers have been going down,

including just nine

against a UCF team that came in averaging about 16 forced a game. We even saw the Wolverines

hit some tough shots. They were 41% on three at 11 of 27. But other issues popped up, and the

margin for error on the season as a whole went down.

Michigan, a year ago, took care of all five non-conference games, though in fairness none

...