CHAMPAIGN — If there’s one thing Darius Morris can count on every game, it’s having a significant size advantage over his counterpart.

Most point guards hover around 6-feet tall — almost none can claim to be 6-foot-4, which is what Morris measures in at.

But as the sophomore found out Wednesday night — and as Michigan itself found out — Illinois is a different animal. Staring across at him on every possession was Fighting Illini guard Demetri McCamey, a 6-foot-3 physical specimen who wasn’t going to let Morris just dance his way into the lane like he does so often.

And even if he did manage to get into the paint, Morris had a trio of skyscraper Illinois forwards standing in his path. It’s no surprise then that Morris went just 4-for-12 from the field, that the Wolverines shot just 37.3 percent for the game or that Michigan made just 2-of-18 of its 3-pointers.

The Wolverines couldn’t pull this one off, missing a great opportunity to collect a Top-50 RPI win on the road and put themselves solidly on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Instead, they’re left walking the same tightrope they were already on, just with even less margin of error.

But Michigan can live with that.

From the beginning, Illinois, with its army of lengthy bigs and its top-ranked Big Ten defense, was going to present a different kind of challenge. Michigan coach John Beilein knew it would take a monumental effort for his team to spring the upset.

Every time the 7-foot-1 Mike Tisdale casually reached over a Wolverine defender to snatch a pass out of the air and put it in the basket, you were reminded that this was perhaps the worst possible matchup for Michigan in conference play.

Beilein’s team thrives on hitting 3-pointers — those are a lot harder to convert when players like junior guards Stu Douglass and Zack Novak find opponents as many as five-to-six inches taller than them leaping out to contest their shots.

The Wolverines live on Morris and other ball-handlers penetrating the lane and putting up tough layups — when you have to wait until you’ve almost fallen to the court again on your shot attempt just to get separation, those aren’t going to fall with any regularity.

Heck, even No. 2 Ohio State is a better matchup for this team — Jared Sullinger is one of the best players in the country, but at least Jordan Morgan can look him straight in the eye when trying to deny him in the post, instead of staring up at someone like Tisdale, helpless to do anything once the ball reaches his hands.

So while Michigan is well past the point of taking solace in playing hard and just being able to compete with teams better than it, the Wolverines needn’t worry about this one too much.

Instead, they should be worrying about that road finale at Minnesota next week. The Fighting Illini and the Golden Gophers are very similar teams in terms of issues their sizes propose.

But Michigan knows it can beat Minnesota — it lost by just four points in the teams’ previous meeting this season, and it topped the Gophers the last four times before that (meanwhile, the Wolverines’ haven’t won at Assembly Hall for 16 years).

Looking at Michigan’s final five games going into Wednesday night, it appeared it had to win three to give it a solid shot of making the NCAA Tournament.

Just four games are left, but the fact remains the same — the Wolverines need three wins, and their best opportunities for nabbing them are still out there on the schedule.

This win would have helped immensely, which is why much will be made of the last possession, when Beilein’s squad nearly made two desperation shots to win the game.

“I was looking just to get (the last shot) off,” Beilein said. “I don’t know (what would’ve happened) if (Douglass) would’ve had just a little bit more time to set his feet. That would have been a great way for Michigan to win in Champaign.”

It would have been — but a win in Iowa City is just as important at this point. So, too, are potential victories over Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan State.

The Wolverines’ Big Dance hopes suffered a blow Wednesday in Champaign. But after losing to a team that, realistically, it should’ve lost to, Michigan is far from dead.

The tightrope, though, just got a little shakier.