It might look daunting, but Michigan basketball coach John Beilein insists this might be the best time for his group to play Ohio State.

The reasoning isn’t based on any vulnerabilities he sees in the No. 2-ranked team in the country. Rather, it's based on what his team did Sunday. Taking No. 3 Kansas to overtime before losing, 67-60, gave his team confidence.

Competing with the Jayhawks, the nation’s best defensive team, showed the Wolverines they have a shot against the nation's best. On Wednesday night against No. 2 Ohio State (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network), they’ll need that confidence.

“Thank goodness we don’t have 10 days or a bye week,” Beilein said. “I think our kids, as much respect as we have for how good Ohio State is coming in here, that’s a good game for us right now to just go and play another great team.”

Perhaps the best sign for Michigan is that it played one of its worst offensive games of the year and, at the same time, one of its better defensive ones.

It dug out the little-used 1-3-1 zone defense in the second half and instead of using it for a couple possessions with little-to-no success, it neutralized Kansas for almost 10 minutes.

And if Michigan had even played an average offensive game, it would have had a good chance of beating the Jayhawks. That is confidence it can take into Wednesday against the potential National Player of the Year, Ohio State freshman forward Jared Sullinger.

“There’s no consolation. ... We had a lot of mistakes and I had a lot of mistakes defensively and a lot of our shots didn’t fall,” junior guard Stu Douglass said. “If we improve on those, we win this game (against Kansas) and it’s a completely different story. But we did lose.

“It’s tough. Tough to take away.”

For the fifth time this season, Michigan (11-5) had more turnovers (15) than assists (9). It's not a coincidence, considering the precision needed to run Beilein’s offense successfully, that the Wolverines are 2-3 in those games.

Michigan shot a season-worst 14.3 percent from the 3-point line and only 33.3 percent from the field, the Wolverines’ worst performance since Nov. 27, when they shot 30.2 percent in a 65-56 loss to UTEP in Atlantic City, N.J.

Beilein was impressed with how his team hustled — and said Monday he had a knowledgeable basketball observer call him and say how hard they competed. Beilein even said the effort may have contributed to Michigan being tired in the second half.

After Sunday's game, though, his message was simple. And it is something Michigan needs to carry into Wednesday.

“I said we’re going to win these games,” Beilein said. “We’re going to learn to win these games and there’s all kinds of plays within games that are called winning basketball.

“I told them now we’ve got another chance to do it. In 72 hours, we’ve got a huge rival coming in here. Our effort was great. We weren’t perfect today, far from perfect.”

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.