One might expect the young Wolverines to carry a negative mindset, considering they had what Michigan men's basketball coach John Beilein termed Monday as their “most disappointing overall performance” of the season on Saturday in Bloomington.

But there’s no time for Michigan to feel sorry for itself.

Michigan (1-4 Big Ten, 11-7 overall) fell to Indiana, 80-61, at Assembly Hall and was never in the game from the opening minutes. The Wolverines allowed the Hoosiers to shoot 67.4 percent from the field in Michigan's worst defensive performance of the season.

Indiana (1-4, 10-8) missed just 14 shots, allowing few opportunities for Michigan to get defensive rebounds. The Hoosiers had an enormous 37-18 advantage on the glass, and the 18 boards were a season low for Beilein's team.

The Wolverines will have to get their defense back on track when they stay on the road Tuesday night to take on Northwestern (2-4, 11-5) in Evanston.

“We did not play great fundamental defense (against Indiana),” Beilein said in the Big Ten coaches’ teleconference. “We didn’t defend the ball screens very well.

“We’ve been defending, at times, very well. (But) we were very bad at (ball screens), and that’s a huge concern because the ball screen is taking over college basketball.”

The Wildcats present a tough challenge. Coming into the season, Northwestern was pegged as having a solid chance to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the program’s history.

The team still has a decent chance of doing so. The Wildcats faltered early on in conference play, losing their first three conference games, but rebounded to defeat Indiana and Iowa before narrowly falling at Michigan State in overtime.

Northwestern coach Bill Carmody compared his team's and Michigan's offensive styles on Monday, noting their similarities in terms of spacing the floor and taking a lot of outside shots.

“(Beilein)’s a very good coach, and we probably think in a similar fashion,” Carmody said. “You move the ball, you move the people. If you’re open, you shoot the ball. I’ve admired the way his teams have played over the years. I’m sure I’ve stolen a few things from him, and maybe he’s looked at my stuff and said, ‘I can use that.’ ”

But while the Wildcats and Wolverines possess similar gameplans on the offensive end of the court, the former have been executing much better this season.

Northwestern has attempted fewer 3-pointers than Michigan (378 compared to 433), but has made more — giving it edges in both 3-point shooting percentage (39.7 percent to 33.3 percent) and total points per game (77.2 to 66.9). The average makes the Wildcats the second-highest scoring team in the conference.

Wildcat guard Michael Thompson (15.1 points per game) and guard/forward Drew Crawford (13.8) are threats, but of particular concern for the Wolverines is forward John Shurna. The 6-foot-8 forward is extremely versatile on the court, capable of hitting from outside and scoring down low. Shurna is third in the Big Ten in points per game, averaging 19.3.

Michigan dropped both contests to Northwestern last season, with Shurna combining for 26 points. Shurna, who played for the gold-medal winning U.S. national team in the U-19 FIBA World Championship last summer, has already exploded for totals of 31 and 28 points in games earlier this season.

“He’s just become such an important player for Northwestern and a very good player in our league,” Beilein said. “He’s more than just a shooter … Our hope is that guys like (redshirt freshman forward) Blake McLimans, guys like (freshman forward) Evan Smotrycz can play in a similar fashion and grow (and) improve as much as (Shurna) has in the time that he’s been at Northwestern.”

Michigan followed up its first two losses of the season in Atlantic City by winning on the road at Clemson in its next game. And now, the Wolverines hope they can bounce back from their new low point again on Tuesday night, as they try to halt their slide down the conference standings.

And Carmody has seen the same phenomenon with his own team this season.

“I know we played Illinois and it was about as bad as we could play,” Carmody said. “We came back and we started to play a little bit better. Certainly, that’s on your mind.

“Right now, I’m still concentrating on just our own team … (but a Michigan turnaround) certainly concerns me.”