You hear it all the time in college basketball.

You got to put together a full 40 minutes.

And hey, no team is going to be perfect over a 40 minute stretch.

But ultimately, if you play up to your standard, to your ability for more of that 40 minutes than your opponent, most times you're going to take care of business.

And if it's close, then it's a matter of, maybe it's home versus road or

a great individual play late or maybe a lucky bounce here and there. In the first half,

it was basically a toss-up on Saturday at the Breslin Center. Michigan and Michigan State went

back and forth, seven ties, seven lead changes, some high-quality basketball in stretches. And yeah, it was a four-point Michigan

state lead, but it felt like Michigan was very much in that game. It had every opportunity to go in

there in the second half and pick up its biggest win of the season. The second half, not so much. The

Wolverines struggled immensely. Michigan State outscored the Wolverines 44 to 32.

They blitzed out of the gate and really Michigan could never get that close after that.

And within Big Ten play, whether you're at home or on the road or on a neutral floor,

if you don't put together a full 40, you're not going to get the job done.

Consider this was a rivalry matchup on the road against a team like Michigan State number 10 in the nation. And that's what

happens when you put a good first half together, you're in it. You put a struggling second half

together and you lose by 16. Michigan in recent games has improved.

They have gotten better.

They have played harder.

But ultimately, 40 minutes of effort will get you what Michigan put up two weeks ago at Illinois.

Wolverines gritted through it, hung tough, they were shorthanded, didn't get the job done.

Now, Michigan has pretty much everybody

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