On Saturday night, Michigan fell to the Michigan State Spartans for the fifth time in the last seven games. The Wolverines committed 22 turnovers and didn't score a basket in the last seven-plus minutes of the game.

The 73-63 loss drops Juwan Howard and Michigan to 8-18 overall on the season and 3-13 in Big Ten play. Here are three takeaways from the loss.

Michigan scored two bench points on Saturday night. Yes, that's a real stat. The two bench points came from Will Tschetter late in the second half. Other than that Michigan got nothing out of its other two bench players, George Washington III and Tray Jackson.

Sixty-one of Michigan's 63 points came from the starting five, while the Spartans got 23 points from their bench, meaning they only needed 50 points from their starting five to secure the comfortable 10-point victory.

Below is the combined stat line between Michigan's three bench players on Saturday night:

2 points

1-7 FG

0-3 3FG

7 rebounds

5 fouls

3 turnovers

30 minutes of play

It may sound like a broken record this late in the season, but Michigan's lack of bench production has haunted the team all season, and it is one of the biggest factors in the team's failure this season.

Speaking of no bench production, Seton Hall transfer Tray Jackson has been a complete liability on the floor, and he's become largely unplayable. It was Jackson's second scoreless game of the season, and he severely negatively affected the Wolverines' chances of winning Saturday night's game.

Jackson turned the ball over three times and had multiple mental lapses, including a complete lack of awareness as MSU guard A.J. Hoggard drove right to the basket for an easy layup.

In 26 games this season, Jackson has surpassed double digits just once, and he's done the team more bad than good.

At this point in the season, it's fair to wonder why Juwan Howard bothered to take Jackson from the transfer portal. His best season at Seton Hall was the 2021-22 season when he averaged 6.8 points and 3.5 rebounds.

Howard is between a rock and a hard place with Jackson and the bench. He can't afford to play the 6-foot-10 forward, but he also can't afford to not play him, either, because Michigan's bench is so thin, especially with Terrance Williams II battling an illness.

All things considered, Michigan actually shot the ball rather well on Saturday night (45.3 percent from the floor and 35 percent from beyond the arc), but the Wolverines turned the ball over 22 times, which simply isn't going to win a team any basketball games.

Between Dug McDaniel continuously tossing the ball to the other team or Olivier Nkamhoua traveling or being careless with the ball, Michigan State earned 22 extra possessions off Michigan's carelessness.

Unfortunately for the Wolverines, it's been the same story all season long, and as the calendar approaches late February, it appears Michigan won't get these issues fixed this season.

There are just five games left in the regular season, along with at least one guaranteed game in the Big Ten Tournament.

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