If you thought wins over UCLA and Duke were statement games, you haven’t seen anything yet.

The Michigan men’s basketball team’s biggest moment so far this season won’t happen inside storied Madison Square Garden or amid hundreds of students rushing the Crisler Arena court.

The Bryce Jordan Center in State College will do just fine.

Yes, those two upsets provided national attention and reinvigorated a frustrated fan base. But tonight’s matchup at Penn State has the makings to be Michigan's loudest statement this season.

Coming off back-to-back losses against Illinois in Champaign and Ohio State at home Saturday, the Wolverines (3-3 Big Ten, 13-5 overall) are at the lowest point of the season.

Tonight, Michigan has something to prove.

A win in a hostile environment would prevent this two-game skid from becoming another one of the Wolverines' lackluster conference campaigns every Michigan fan would like to brush away, bury and never speak of again.

Everyone thought the team that beat UCLA and Duke was different. It wasn’t the team that suffered a program-record 22 losses last season or fell into a downward spiral in conference play under former coach Tommy Amaker. This new team made an NCAA Tournament bid after an 11-year absence look like a real possibility.

“(The program’s) getting rebuilt,” sophomore forward Manny Harris said after Michigan’s win over Duke on Dec. 6. “We're trying to put it back on the map, and that's where I think we're going.”

Harris echoed the swagger and confidence his teammates exemplified in the following games.

But that swagger has faded, and it needs to reappear for Michigan to win down the stretch.

The Wolverines have to regain that good feeling.

“We’ve got to come out and believe in ourselves right off the bat,” freshman guard Zack Novak said, echoing Michigan coach John Beilein’s message following Saturday’s seven-point loss. “We've got to do the little things better — come out for Penn State ready to go.”

But what are those little things?

For one, the balanced offensive attack that picked apart the Bruins and Blue Devils isn’t there anymore. In Michigan’s last two losses, it has been Harris’s second-half heroics that gave the Wolverines their best chance to win.

Michigan’s leading scorer all season, Harris previously shared that scoring burden with long-range shooters Novak, freshman Stu Douglass and redshirt freshman Laval Lucas-Perry. On any given night, those shooters can be on target, but the trio is 7-for-24 from 3-point range in the Wolverines' last two losses.

It’s not rocket science, but when Beilein’s offense looks like a well-oiled machine, multiple players get open looks and sink their shots.

That includes junior forward DeShawn Sims.

A vocal leader, Sims’s pregame and halftime speeches have motivated this team when it has faced a challenge.

But it’s Sims's agility in the post that's irreplaceable and needs to shine.

In the last two losses, Sims is 7-for-27 with just eight rebounds. That says a lot about a player who, before last Wednesday’s loss to Illinois, led the Big Ten in rebounding with 8.7 rebounds per game and was third in scoring (16.5 ppg).

The Nittany Lions (3-3, 14-5), the Wolverines’ Big Ten cellar-dwelling companion last season, have improved greatly this year. They’ve played well at home, knocking off Purdue and nearly upsetting Michigan State. Talor Battle, the conference’s leading scorer, can control an entire game.

It’s clear from this young conference season that every game is competitive. It’s a long season, and the last two games could be just small blemishes on what can be a successful season.

The Wolverines just need to realize that.

— Lincoln can be reached at lincolnr@umich.edu