Michigan basketball lost its ninth straight game to Illinois on Sunday afternoon by an ugly score of 93-73. The Fighting Illini scored 62 second-half points, as they pulled away from Michigan at Crisler Center.

With the loss, the Wolverines fall to 22-7 overall on the season and 14-4 in conference play. Michigan now falls one game behind rival Michigan State at the top of the Big Ten standings.

Here are three takeaways from the disastrous defeat.

Michigan's basketball team is centered around the two 7-footers in the front court, Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin — that has been evident since the Wolverines made their first public appearance of the season against Oakland at Little Caesars Arena in October.

In the early stages of the season, Wolf and Goldin were borderline unstoppable. Teams struggled to figure out the 4-5 ball screen that Dusty May brilliantly implemented, and the Wolverines looked to have two first-team all-conference players in their starting lineup.

But as the season has gone on, Goldin has taken more of a signature role in the offense, while Wolf has had his fair share of struggles.

Wolf has scored 20 or more points in just one game since mid-January, and this was something he accomplished four times in the front half of the season.

Not only has Wolf failed to score at the same rate he did early on in the season, but Wolf is also committing turnovers at a ridiculously high rate. The 7-foot big man coughed up the rock four times in the first half of Michigan's loss to Illinois on Sunday afternoon. He added another turnover in the second half, too.

As dominant as Goldin was, Michigan didn't win, and Wolf needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror, because if he continues this level of play, Michigan won't be going far in either of the two tournaments it will play in.

Rebounding was clearly Michigan's greatest deficiency in Sunday's defeat. The Wolverines gave up a whopping 19 offensive rebounds, and they lost the overall rebounding battle 43-32.

With two 7-footers in the starting lineup and a scrappy, 6-foot-8 Will Tschetter coming off the bench, rebounding should be easy for Dusty May's squad, but it certainly wasn't easy for the Wolverines against Illinois.

Like the turnover issue, rebounding has been a problem for the Wolverines all season, and it haunted them in a big way on Sunday afternoon.

Defensive rebounding and turnovers are two key areas Michigan must improve in before the super meaningful games start being played later this month. If Michigan can clean those issues up, it could be a threat to make a run deep in March.

However, if these problems persist, don't be surprised if you see Michigan's season end prematurely in the Big Dance.

The race for the Big Ten regular-season championship is down to just two teams now: Michigan State and Michigan. The in-state rivals are battling for the league crown, and while both teams still have a shot at a share of the crown, the Spartans look significantly better than the Wolverines at this point in time.

Michigan State went 5-0 in a grueling stretch against Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Maryland and Wisconsin, five of the toughest teams in the conference.

Meanwhile, Michigan has been winning by the skin of its teeth game after game, and on Sunday afternoon it finally caught up to the Wolverines. Illinois got the best of Michigan, and the 93-73 loss will drastically hurt Michigan's chances of securing the regular-season championship.

MSU now holds a 1-game lead over Michigan in the league standings. This week, the Spartans will head to Iowa City to take on the Hawkeyes, while Michigan will host Maryland. Then, on Sunday afternoon in East Lansing, the rivals will meet for the second time this season.

Barring a stunning loss by MSU to Iowa, Michigan will still be a game behind the Spartans come Sunday. If this is the case, the Wolverines will have no shot at an outright Big Ten title, and they'll be playing for a share of the crown.

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