With its conference opener against Indiana at Crisler Arena, Michigan had a chance to reset its season and leave the uneven start of the first eight games behind. Instead, the Wolverines authored what's become a similar story: Sloppy execution on both ends of the court down the stretch leads to a close loss. Michigan's 78-75 defeat to the Hoosiers was its second straight that slipped away in the final minutes after the Wolverines' overtime loss at Oregon over the weekend. Michigan's close game woes go beyond the last two heartbreakers. This was the fifth straight loss for Michigan in a one possession game. The Wolverines are now 2-12 in games decided by five points or less since the beginning of last season. It was also the fourth loss in a row to Indiana, by a combined 9 points. Regression to the mean, where art thou?

This game had plenty of typical hallmarks of a painful basketball loss. Did the defense collapse? Yep. Indiana scored on 13 of its final 17 possessions after Michigan forged its biggest lead of the game at 59-53 with less than nine minutes to play. Five different Hoosiers scored baskets with Indiana averaging 1.6 points per possession down the stretch. How about heartbreaking free throw misses? Those were present. Michigan split three different trips to the free throw line in the final minutes, all from Dug McDaniel including one that would have tied it with 35 seconds left. What about a goofy loose ball situation that doesn't go the local heroes way? We had one of those too. Michigan appeared to have finally got a key stop in the waning seconds to possibly set up a game winning possession, but the loose ball rebound grazed off Taris Reed's fingertips, replay review gave possession back to Indiana, and the Hoosiers eventually swished a pair of free throws to extend its lead to 3 with less than five seconds to go. Indiana played #FoulToWin from there and Michigan never got a chance at a game tying trey.

Looking through the final team box score, one thing stands out. Michigan was only +3 points in three point offense. The Hoosiers are one of the worst shooting teams in the country and were playing without their top perimeter threat in Xavier Johnson. But even with Johnson, the triple isn't a big part of the offense. Michigan should have made more hay in this department, but the Wolverines shot just 4-for-17 from behind the arc, clanking plenty of open looks off the rim. Indiana's guards had made only two triples combined in the previous four games. But they drilled two (of the team's three) against Michigan, both by CG Gunn who had not made a trey all season. But his second make, a bold contested dagger from 22 feet gave the Hoosiers a 60-59 lead with 7:30 to go.

[After THE JUMP: At least we got some Tschetter Time]

The buzz coming into this game was two of the Big Ten's best players on the same court: Michigan point guard Dug McDaniel, 6th in the league in scoring and 4th in assists and Indiana center Kel'el Ware, 9th in scoring and 3rd in rebounding. Neither really starred tonight, however. McDaniel struggled from the jump. Early in the game he got his pocket picked by Gabe Cupps leading to a transition dunk by Ware. After that sequence, you had to figure it wasn't going to be his night. It was not. He finished just 3-for-14 shooting, missing all four of his triple attempts and three critical free throws. He ended with 13 points, three rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Olivier Nkamhoua and Will Tschetter picked up the scoring slack pouring in 18 and 17 points respectively. If there's a silver lining, Michigan's offense did look relatively functional even with McDaniel having such a poor shooting night.

Ware didn't struggle as much as just had a quiet night, scoring only 4 points over the game's final 26 minutes. Ware did score the tie breaking basket at 73-73 on a running, right-handed hook shot just over an outstretched Reed, with 55.8 seconds to go. Ware also controlled the early portion of the game. Both teams came out sloppy with a combined nine turnovers in the game's first seven minutes. Ware was the best player during the early segments, scoring 9 points and grabbing 4 defensive boards. The Hoosiers forged an early 15-9 lead, which they pushed out to 28-21, its largest of the game, on a jump shot from reserve Anthony Walker.  Ware was whistled for his second foul with 6:55 to go and went to the bench for the rest of the half. Michigan took advantage and closed the half on a 18-9 run ignited by a Terrance Williams transition three and an alley oop from Nimari Burnett to Taris Reed. The closing spurt gave Michigan a 39-37 halftime lead. 

The good times continued for Michigan into the second half, which alternated between the Olivier Nkamhoua and Will Tschetter shows. Nkamhoua came out of the break and scored Michigan's first eight points. His first bucket was a drive  into the lane that he finished with a quasi baby hook shot over an IU defender. He then drained three straight jumpers. Then Tschetter took over. He scored on a driving baseline reverse layup. He hit a ridiculous fadeaway post up shot over Ware after which he mean mugged his way back up the court. A couple possessions later his drilled a triple to give Michigan its largest lead of the game at 59-53. Even in a losing effort, he was still the KenPom MVP of this contest with 17 points on 7 shots while grabbing 6 rebounds. If this is the Tschetter Michigan gets during the rest of the season, there will be happier results. 

Despite Tschetter's efforts as a reserve, Indiana's bench outperformed Michigan's bench. Averaging just 13.6 points per game coming in, Indiana's bench mob poured in 28 points with four players scoring between 6-8 points. For the game, Indiana's bench provided an All-American line of 28 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals, and block. Michigan's bench production ended with a solid 25 points and 12 rebounds, but almost all of it was Tschetter. Nobody else really gave Michigan juice off the bench, while It seemed like one of Gunn, Walker, Kaleb Banks, and Payton Sparks were always contributing something after having been just bit players before the Michigan game. I'll bet a dollar that when the season ends, this will be the Hoosiers bench best performance of the season.

A fun, high scoring start to the season has given way to late game failures and losses in five of the Wolverines last six games. When you're 4-5, there aren't any mock brackets to check in on. You are not represented on the Bracket Matrix. But to paraphrase Jim Mora Sr., we're not here to talk about the tournament. Michigan's just trying to win some games. That's the simple goal for this team now. The upcoming slate is somewhat manageable: at Iowa, Eastern Michigan, Florida (neutral), McNeese St, Minnesota, Penn State (neutral). KenPom gives Michigan four wins in this stretch with close losses to Iowa and Florida. If Michigan takes care of business in the projected wins and flips one of those losses, they'll be 9-6 in early January. They can build from that. The question is does this team have the moxie on both ends of the court to turn this around. Hopefully those first steps can be taken this coming Sunday at Iowa. Game is on the BTN and tips at 4:30.