Even as Michigan tied the longest losing streak in school history — a stretch that included total point outputs the football team could match — I have to admit that, for a tiny window of time, Michigan coach Tommy Amaker made me a believer. [Editor's Note: During the 1981-82 season, the team lost 11 straight games.  One of the losses was later changed to a win when Wisconsin was forced to forfeit the game because of an illegal player]

I didn’t believe that Michigan was still in the hunt for an NCAA Tournament berth or that the Wolverines could even compete without junior guards Daniel Horton and Lester Abram. I didn’t believe anything that implausible. I simply believed that Michigan had found an offensive system that worked and would at least keep them competitive.

Last Tuesday, the Wolverines played No. 1 Illinois to a 57-51 loss, holding the Fighting Illini to their lowest scoring output of the season.

Amaker found a way to keep the Wolverines in the game, by slowing the game down to a turtle’s pace.

On Saturday, Amaker came out with the same game plan. It seemed like a logical conclusion. Michigan State averages 78.9 points a game and is a far more athletic team than Michigan, just like Illinois was.

“If the game is going to be scored in high numbers right now with our team, it’s probably not one that we feel we could come out on top,” Amaker said. “So we certainly tried to see if we could shorten it.”

The Wolverines had nothing to lose.

Except their eighth straight game. The Spartans threw a wrench into Michigan’s new-look offense from the get-go. They scored the game’s first six points in frustratingly easy fashion — a layup and two dunks.

It was a sign of things to come. The Wolverines just couldn’t handle Michigan State’s transition offense, which made easy bucket after easy bucket. The clinic only highlighted just how inflexible the slow-down offense can be.

Put yourself in Michigan’s shoes. For each 35-second possession, Michigan poured all its effort into two points, not even shooting until the shot clock had less than 10 seconds remaining.

Compare that to the 10 seconds the Spartans would use up before they scored some of their points. Imagine that you’re the kid who studies two weeks in advance for a midterm, only to see the kid that doesn’t go to class get just as good a grade as you. Deflating and frustrating.

It worked like that all day for the Wolverines.

Take this as an example. Each time sophomore Dion Harris hit one of his three 3-pointers in the first half, the Spartans came back and scored immediately afterwards — seven, eight and 13 seconds after Harris’s threes to be exact.

It was apparent early that the slow-down wasn’t going to get the job done if the Wolverines couldn’t stop the counter-punch.

“You always just got to do the best thing to win,” junior tri-captain Graham Brown said. “We are always out there fighting, trying to improve, trying to find things that work. And we are getting there. Some games are a little better than others.”

Harris — who runs the offense for a majority of the game — has shown extreme discipline in keeping the game slow. He’s resisted the temptation to play up to the speed of the Fighting Illini or the Spartans and it has made Michigan more competitive.

But is there a difference between disciplined follower and brainwashed-minion? At one point in the second half on Saturday, Crisler Arena collectively screamed at Harris to run a clear 3-on-1 fast break. After a moment of recognition, Harris realized it might be okay to speed things up, just this once. But by then, it was too late. He promptly turned the ball over.

Sophomore Brent Petway broke the rules a few times too. The Spartans gave him wide-open looks at the top of the 3-point line in the second half with plenty of time left on the shot clock. To everyone’s surprise, he hit a long 2-pointer and a 3-pointer before launching an overzealous miss on the next possession.

But other than these few instances, Michigan kept it strictly by the book, and it hurt it in the end. The underdog manual of creating upsets just wasn’t applicable against a Spartan team — and coach — that watched Michigan make the offensive switch on film, and was prepared for the strategy.

“Coach is the leader of this squad and we have to buy into (the system),” junior tri-captain Sherrod Harrell said. “You can’t have followers who won’t follow the leader. And it worked against Illinois. And (Saturday) we tried to do the same thing.”