At first, it looked like No. 14 Michigan would lead John Calipari’s Arkansas team from Madison Square Garden. Thanks to quick first-half scoring from Nimari Burnett and Will Tschetter, the Wolverines built a 15-point lead with just under six minutes to play in the first frame.

But then the Razorbacks fought back. Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin admitted after the game that the team got a little “complacent” after building its comfortable lead, and Arkansas had all the momentum toward the end of the first half, which carried over after the teams’ halftime break.

At the start of the second half, Boogie Fland and DJ Wagner fired shot after shot, and at the other end of the court the Wolverines continued to shoot themselves in the foot with turnovers.

“Elite players force you to collapse,” May said of Fland and Wagner after the game. “…I thought they made really good plays. Obviously we made some mistakes. “Obviously we want to control things — the turnovers, the defense — a lot better if we want to win these NCAA tournament games.”

Arkansas’ lead grew to 18 points midway through the second half, but a sudden change in momentum led to Michigan getting back into the game.

With less than a minute to play, Michigan had the ball and a chance to take the lead, but Tre Donaldson went out of bounds, committing arguably the most costly turnover of the season – and there are plenty to choose from .

On the next possession, Dusty May set up an inbounds play for Danny Wolf to find Roddy Gayle Jr. on a backdoor cut. Ironically, however, Johnell Davis – May’s former star at Florida Atlantic – intercepted the pass and blew up the play, leading Calipari’s team to a sensational 89-87 victory.

After the game, May described what went wrong for the Wolverines in the loss. The main theme was turnovers, of which the Wolverines committed 17.

“The ball losses are emotionally disappointing for us. When you get a good impression, even if you miss it, you are in the flow of the game. When you turn it over, everyone feels kind of defeated and then you don’t do anything.” “I don’t have the same sense of urgency defensively.”

“(The turnovers) come in so many different ways that it’s difficult to identify what’s most important. We figured out a few things. Once again I thought their physicality, speed and quickness definitely had an impact on turning the ball over.

Michigan entered the contest averaging 15.1 turnovers per game, tied for 334th nationally with Colorado and Virginia Tech. On Tuesday, the Wolverines’ 17 turnovers increased their season average to 15.3, which would tie them with Stetson, UC Davis and Grambling.

Turnover has been the story of the season for May’s squad so far, but Michigan’s head coach is confident things will turn around.

“We need to be more consistent in our approach. This team is still learning to win together as a group and (I’m) very confident that we will apply the lessons we learned tonight going forward.”

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