Flat out, there's no easy way to talk about a game like this.

A team that has made things look so easy in almost every situation, just didn't have it on Tuesday night.

Michigan would not have beaten many teams in college basketball.

They wouldn't have beaten many teams in the Big Ten.

But especially not a hungry, motivated Illinois team that came in without its best player, Iodosumu.

That didn't matter much because it seemed like the align I got every rebound.

They made every shot.

They did all the little things, and it seemed like Michigan had no answers.

Most of the season, Michigan has made wins seem preordained.

Blowouts seemed common.

Success seemed routine.

Not their work, their effort, their approach.

They did everything right behind the scenes.

But then, once you got to the game, once you saw the finished product of the scout,

of the practice of the work, outside of one

trip to Minneapolis, Michigan came in, did their thing, earned the victory a lot of times

emphatically, and then moved on.

They made it look easy.

And that's why Tuesday was such a shock.

It was a 180 on almost every juncture of this Michigan men's basketball

season. And the reasoning for that is twofold, and it's very simple. Illinois played really well.

Michigan did not. The thing that gives me some comfort as we look forward in this early stages

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