There are 345 teams in NCAA Division-I basketball. Most people only pay attention to 25.

Last weekend, fans poured out of the cracks of Ann Arbor and came to Crisler Arena to watch No. 3 Kansas take on Michigan. (There's a reason why Kansas is listed first.)

Few expected Michigan to lead the third-best team in the country. Yes, third best. That means that technically there are 342 teams that are less skillful than the Jayhawks. And the Wolverines, who fall somewhere in the middle of the pack, were leading Kansas. And after a game of hard-fought, nail-biting, make-you-wish-you-were-a-fan-rather-than-a-reporter kind of basketball, people only cared about one thing.

Michigan lost.

So yesterday, the No. 2 team in the country came to Crisler Arena and it was the same story. The Wolverines stuck with a team that features two centers who look like heavyweight boxers and shooting guards who put up astronomical field-goal percentages. But eventually, they lost.

And today, that's all people will care about.

They say the ball doesn’t lie. They never said anything about a record.

In the past week, the Wolverines are 0-2. In Big Ten play, they're 1-3.

But the problem with just looking at those numbers is that they're numbers. Wins and losses are measured by fractions, and at the end of the day it doesn't matter if No. 1 Duke beats a no-name school by 100 or No. 2 Ohio State beats unranked Michigan by three.

Because when you just look at wins and losses, that equalizes Michigan and no-name school. And that's dangerous.

In the past week, the Wolverines played 80 minutes of basketball, and all it amounts to on paper is 0-2. Four quarters of not just sticking with, but playing with, the best of the best, and all people will see is that Michigan lost.

In fact, Michigan hasn't beaten a ranked opponent all season.

Michigan played then-No. 9 Syracuse in just its fourth game of the season. It lost by three points to a team that ranks among the top 55 of all Division-I teams in points, rebounds and assists per game. The Wolverines played the Orange as closely as they’ve been played this year, but it came down to three points.

That’s one single possession.

Then, last Sunday, Michigan played No. 3 Kansas, which ranks in the top 20 of all Division-I teams in points, rebounds and assists per game. The Wolverines took the Jayhawks to overtime before falling to Kansas by seven.

That’s a three-possession game.

So last night, when unranked, overlooked Michigan was leading No. 2 Ohio State, it came as no surprise to me that the Buckeyes are also ranked in the top 20 nationally in points, rebounds and assists per game.

And Michigan lost by four. That’s a two-possession game.

So that means the Wolverines' three major losses this season come down to just six possessions — a half dozen of possessions against teams that will most likely make it to the NCAA Tournament.

Three teams that could very likely make a deep run in the tournament.

And we’re talking about just six possessions.

Six times where the Wolverines didn’t score, where they turned the ball over, where someone made a mistake.

In any given game, Michigan will have about 75 possessions. Michigan assistant coach LaVall Jordan told the players before the game that they can’t take a single play off, because those are the plays that will come back to haunt them.

“Control what you can control,” Jordan said on Wednesday. “You can’t do anything about the past or the future, you’ve just got to stay in the present and concentrate on that. And I think the really good teams in any sport, at any level have the ability to do that … It’s what any team that wins does.”

So when you reduce the Wolverines to their record, just realize the numbers that compile the wins and losses are much more complicated. And at the end of the day, those big things like wins and losses come down to the little things like possessions.

Suddenly six sounds like a big number.

“We’re playing tough teams, and I think we’re competing,” Michigan coach John Beilein said on Wednesday. “I sense that people see that this young team has a chance to be good one day — nobody wants it to be sooner than us, but we just have to stay with it.”

Well, it all comes down to six possessions against Final Four contenders. I'd say that's competing.