When Michigan hosted Iowa at Crisler Center on Saturday night, a larger-than-normal crowd poured into the arena — likely half of which were there to see the basketball game, while the other half showed up to see Michigan's new head football coach. Sherrone Moore, just hours after being formally introduced in a press conference, addressed the Crisler Center crowd during the first half of the game.

It was the most exciting moment of the night as another second-half collapse plagued the Wolverines yet again.

Michigan fell to Iowa, 88-78, to fall to 7-13 overall and 2-7 in Big Ten play. Here are three takeaways from the loss.

Michigan actually had very balanced scoring from a multitude of sources on Saturday night. As it is for any basketball team, balanced scoring has usually been a key to success for the Wolverines this season.

The offense exploded for 44 first-half points, but the only problem was that Iowa hung around with 42 first-half points of their own.

As fans have grown accustomed to this season, Michigan struggled to hold onto its lead and maintain its high level of scoring. Iowa's Payton Sandfort torched the Michigan defense for 21 points in the second half, and because of the poor defense, the Wolverines couldn't keep up with the Hawkeyes.

It was the eighth time this season that Michigan gave up 80 or more points in a game.

Obviously, Michigan's offense has been awfully inconsistent this season, but for a team that averages just over 75 points per game, allowing 80 or more points in 40% of games so far this season is not a winning recipe.

In the early years of the Juwan Howard era and throughout the majority of the John Beilein era, the Michigan basketball program has been blessed with some pretty memorable seasons in recent history.

The program has notched nine 20-win seasons since John Beilein's third year with the program (2009-10), and there have been a trio of 30-win seasons sprinkled into that timeframe, too.

But the 2023-24 Wolverines are mathematically eliminated from winning 30 games this season, and they almost certainly won't win 20, either. It's even plausible that Michigan doesn't even hit 15 wins this season, which would mark the first time that happened since the 2007-08 season.

With Saturday's loss, Michigan fell to 7-13 on the season, which is the worst 20-game start to a season that Michigan has seen since the aforementioned 2007-08 season, which was the first year under Beilein. That Michigan team began its season 5-15, two games worse than this year's Michigan team.

This Michigan team is arguably one of the least talented teams in recent program memory. There are talented individuals on the roster, but the talent just doesn't seem to mesh together very well.

As much as a lack of talent is a clear issue on this year's team, the lack of depth might be an even bigger concern.

Michigan brought four guys off the bench on Saturday night, which because of the return of Tray Jackson, was one more than the typical three. Jackson, Will Tschetter, Jace Howard and Jaelin Llewellyn combined for 27 minutes of game action.

The quartet combined for 16 points in the 27 minutes, but it wasn't enough as Michigan fell. Depth has been one of the leading issues for the team all season, and even with Jackson's return, depth continues to haunt the Wolverines.

It's hard to imagine Michigan will win many more games this season with the bench as thin and disheartening as it's been lately. Even with full strength on Saturday night, Michigan still couldn't muster much from its bench.

The Wolverines will head to East Lansing on Tuesday night to take on the in-state rival Michigan State Spartans. Tipoff is slated for 9 p.m. and the game will air on Peacock.

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