Michigan Basketball: Wolverines Must Learn from Upset and Move on

There are some losses you can live with. Michigan's 82-75 loss to Duke last week is a perfect example.

But a loss to the unranked Virginia Cavaliers? That's something else.

Let's face it. The Wolverines didn't play like the No. 14 team in the land on Tuesday night, losing to the Cavaliers, 70-58, to score a point for the ACC in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. In fact, to put it bluntly, the Wolverines played rather poorly.

In case you missed it, let's do a quick recap. The Wolverines played well enough in the first half, at one point holding a 19-14 lead with a little less than three minutes to go. That's when the Cavaliers got hot and went on a 10-4 run to close the half, heading into the break with a 24-23 lead.

The Cavaliers started slowly in the second half, but they took control of the game at around the 10-minute mark when the score was 41-41. A 12-0 run put the game in their pocket, and that was pretty much all she wrote for the Wolverines.

Not exactly how they drew it up. It didn't help that the Wolverines didn't get much help from their best player, as Tim Hardaway, Jr. managed just five points on 2-of-9 shooting. He didn't help his own cause by picking up two fouls in the first six minutes of the game.

Credit where credit is due, it is now apparent that Virginia may be better than its reputation suggests. They came into Tuesday night's game unranked, but it's going to be hard for the voters to ignore them much longer. After all, they only have one loss and are starting to make some noise in the ACC.

As for Michigan, the only thing to do is put this loss in the rearview mirror and move forward, and quickly. The Wolverines got beat, and I think it's fair to say that they got embarrassed, but they can't let this loss linger. 

This shouldn't be too difficult. Because it's early in the season, you have to give the Wolverines the benefit of the doubt, as there are clearly a few kinks left for them to work out. Their upcoming schedule isn't overly formidable, so they need to use it to gel while they can. They're going to be glad they did once they get into conference play.

So long story short, losing to Virginia is not the end of the world for the Wolverines. It might be the beginning of the end of the world, but only if they let it.