STATE COLLEGE — Last month, Michigan men’s basketball coach John Beilein wasn’t quick to jump to conclusions.

In his postgame press conference following the Wolverines’ upset over then-No. 4 Duke, Beilein called this season a “rollercoaster,” saying his young team would encounter both ups and downs this season.

“We don't want to go the other way, but experience tells you that,” Beilein said on Dec. 6. “This is the good part of the rollercoaster.”

But after last night’s 73-58 loss to Penn State, it's clear that Michigan has not only fallen hard but dug itself into a deep hole with poor shooting and even worse defense.

Rebounding from this low point will require a little more than a comeback win in overtime. Maybe Beilein can get some West Virginia mining equipment to help out the Wolverines.

But until something changes, the chance of climbing out of this dead space is looking grim.

The Wolverines shot a season-low 16.7 percent from behind the arc and allowed 36 points in the paint.

Entering last Wednesday’s game against Illinois, the Wolverines averaged 73 points per game. Since then — three games and seven days later — Michigan hasn’t scored more than 58 points in any contest.

“This was disappointing just from a standpoint that we're just struggling in so many areas,” Beilein said.

The remainder of the season has only three “gimme” games, if that. The rest are filled with the likes of Michigan State at home and Purdue, Wisconsin and Minnesota on the road.

The last 12 games, five home games and seven road ones, will be an uphill battle. And with the Wolverines struggling like this, it could get ugly.

I’m not saying it’s easy to win on the road in the Big Ten. Just look at the Boilermakers. Purdue, the media’s pick to win the Big Ten this season, also lost in State College and was a missed Northwestern layup away from being humiliated in Evanston.

But Purdue didn’t fall behind by 26 points in Happy Valley.

Sophomore point guard Kelvin Grady noted the frustration he's felt over the span of these last few games.

“It's just tough right now,” said Grady, who scored three points on 1-of-5 shooting. “We're not shooting the ball well, and the chemistry's not there. We've got a lot of things that are correctable that we can fix.”

That chemistry following the team’s upsets over Duke and UCLA was so apparent it practically smacked you in the face.

But it's gone now.

In each of Michigan’s three consecutive losses, there's been just one Wolverine stepping up each time. Last night, it was junior forward DeShawn Sims’s 21 points and 11 rebounds that carried his limping team to the finish. Manny Harris, who entered the game as the conference’s leading scorer at 18.8 points per game, failed to show up.

Harris's second-half heroics have carried this team before. But last night, he looked almost timid and afraid to drive. He finished with four points, which tied a career low dating back to last season.

Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions lit up the Bryce Jordan Center with four players in double figures.

Michigan needs that same balanced offensive attack to finish this season with its head up.

Beilein said after the loss to Wisconsin on New Year's Eve that it’s sometimes a loss that’s the turning point in a team’s season.

This loss could be a turn for the worst.

— Lincoln can be reached at lincolnr@umich.edu.