In a season in which the best of college basketball has had little definition, with top-five teams losing at a record rate and the No. 1 spot changing hands like a baton at the Olympic 4x100 relay, try establishing exactly who belongs at the outer edge of the upper 19.3 percent.

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Michigan lost as expected Saturday afternoon in the first of the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, 76-59, to Purdue at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Wolverines (22-12) entered as the No. 8 seed. They showed an impressive degree of resilience and competitive toughness in defeating league champion Indiana in the quarterfinals. But Purdue (26-7) was a horrendous matchup in many ways. In the few areas it was not, UM could not make them count.

So now the Wolverines will see how they match up on paper* (*actually a computer display) with the other NCAA bubble teams.

“I’m not sure, but we believe in the committee that they’ll make the right decision,” sophomore guard Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman said.

CBS Sports bracket expert Jerry Palm had the Wolverines as one of the final four teams on the bracket before Saturday’s defeat, along with Wichita State, Monmouth and Syracuse.

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Which calls to mind the old joke about two men running from a bear and one says to the other: How are we going to outrun a bear? And the other guy answers: I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.

All of those teams are finished, so the running is all metaphorical. Their work is done, as well as the work of those in the first four out of Palm’s projected field: Vanderbilt, Saint Mary’s, George Washington and Tulsa.

“You talk about top 50 teams. We beat top 25 teams,” UM coach John Beilein said. “We’re a good team right now. They’ve got to compare that to all the other bubble teams. Did they battle the same adversity all year? Who knows?”

It’s difficult to compare at a glance Michigan’s season with those of Wichita, Monmouth and Saint Mary’s.

Wichita had one major out-of-conference win, against Utah, then dominated the mid-major Missouri Valley. Saint Mary’s, in transition after losing four starters, did not play an imposing non-league schedule and then surprisingly beat out both Gonzaga and BYU to win the West Coast Conference title. Monmouth beat four high-major opponents, including Notre Dame and Southern California, but UCLA and Georgetown both declined in league play and beating them might not carry as much weight.

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If the committee members prefer any or all of these teams to the Wolverines, that really is a matter of taste.

How, though, does Michigan rank against Syracuse and Vanderbilt, teams in comparable leagues with comparable opportunities?

Michigan

Road: 5-6

RPI Top 25: 3-7

RPI Top 50: 4-11

KenPom rank: 50

Best wins: Maryland, Purdue, Indiana (neutral), Texas (neutral)

Bad losses: None

Vanderbilt

Road: 3-9

RPI Top 25: 2-6

RPI Top 50: 2-7

KenPom rank: 26

Best wins: Kentucky, Texas A&M, Stony Brook

Bad losses: Tennessee (neutral)

Syracuse

Road: 3-8

RPI Top 25: 2-5

RPI Top 50: 5-6

KenPom rank: 41

Best wins: Texas A&M (neutral), at Duke, Notre Dame, UConn (neutral)

Bad losses: St. John’s

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It would seem pretty clear by traditional measures Vanderbilt is the least of these three, but in an analytics world the Commodores own by far the most attractive rating. A year ago, UCLA (then 33rd) and Texas (25th) had little to recommend them aside from high ratings in statistician Ken Pomeroy’s system. And they both made it.

Michigan shot 6-of-25 from 3-point range even though high-quality opportunities were generated for Zak Irvin (1-of-7) and Duncan Robinson (1-of-5) by trying to mismatch Purdue’s big freshman power forward Caleb Swanigan.  “We got the looks,” guard Derrick Walton said. “The looks weren’t a problem.”

There was no way the Wolverines were going to beat the Boilermakers, or challenge them to the end, shooting the ball in that fashion.

“Given the opportunity again,” Beilein said, “we’ll make those shots.”

That’s the tricky part, isn’t it? The opportunity?