Michigan Basketball: Takeaways from Zavier Simpson-led comeback effort

Michigan basketball suffered a tough loss on Thursday, falling at home to a red-hot Wisconsin team despite a career-high 32 points from Zavier Simpson.

Michigan basketball finally slipped up. The Wolverines have been on a nice tear as of late but lost to the Wisconsin Badgers on Thursday, surrendering 81 points and rallying a too-little-too-late comeback effort. The loss is a disappointing one for head coach Juwan Howard‘s Michigan squad, as it ends a winning streak at five games and puts them in a tie for fourth place in the Big Ten with three games left to play.

The Wolverines are not one of the teams in the hunt for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but they nonetheless needed to avoid dropping any games if they want to maximize their potential of getting the best possible seeding and Thursday obviously hurt them. Wisconsin basketball is no slouch and they are in the midst of the current, longest winnings streak in the Big Ten at five games. But Thursday was a home game for the Wolverines, one in which they were favored.

Michigan basketball now sits in a tie with Ohio State for fourth place in the Big Ten and they will be taking on the Buckeyes in a very important matchup on March 1st at Value City Arena. The Wolverines had been playing like one of the best teams in the nation in the month of February, so the hope for Juwan Howard and co. is that the loss to Wisconsin was just a temporary lapse in focus, rather than an indication of future struggles to come.

Here are our takeaways from Michigan’s late-season loss to the Wisconsin Badgers.