Michigan dropped its fifth straight game on Thursday night in a 64-57 loss to Maryland on the road. Olivier Nkamhoua led the Wolverines in scoring with 18 points, but the lack of depth proved to be the team's biggest issue yet again.

The Wolverines are now the Big Ten's bottom dwellers with a 6-10 overall record and a 1-4 mark in conference play.

Here are three takeaways from another loss.

After weeks of rumors swirled about a potential academic issue with a player on the men's basketball team, star point guard Dug McDaniel officially announced on Wednesday night that he would miss the next six road games due to academic reasons.

McDaniel has been the team's leading scorer this season with 17.8 points per game, and his absence in the six road games will hurt the Wolverines in a major way.

Jaelin Llewellyn and George Washington III had to pick up the slack in Thursday night's loss to Maryland, but the Wolverines clearly lacked any sort of offensive rhythm without McDaniel on the floor.

McDaniel will also miss games against Purdue (Jan. 23), Michigan State (Jan. 30), Nebraska (Feb. 10), Illinois (Feb. 13) and Northwestern (Feb. 22).

It's already been a nightmare of a season for the Wolverines, and it won't get any easier with the star player and leading scorer sidelined due to academic reasons.

Michigan was already a team that lacked depth prior to McDaniel's suspension, and the depth on the roster takes another hit for the five more games that he will miss. Not only were the Wolverines missing McDaniel on Thursday night, though. Forward Tray Jackson was out as well due to being on the concussion protocol.

The Wolverines only played eight players in Thursday night's loss, and two players, Youssef Khayat and George Washington III, didn't score. Neither Khayat nor Washington recorded 10 minutes of action on the floor, either.

Essentially, Michigan was forced to attempt to hang around with Maryland with six players, which isn't an attainable task.

The lack of depth has proven to be the team's Achilles heel this season. Michigan has held a lead numerous times at halftime this season, but then proceeds to let it slip away in the second half, as it did against Maryland.

Michigan led by 12 points at halftime, but less than three minutes into the second half, Maryland had already chopped the lead in half, and the Terrapins erased it completely not long afterward.

With the loss, Michigan now sits at 6-10 overall, and it's shaping up to be one of the worst years in program history. The schedule gets increasingly tougher as January wears on, and there doesn't appear to be another win on the schedule anytime soon.

Michigan's next 10 games, along with each team's respective record, are as follows. An asterisk indicates that Michigan will be without Dug McDaniel for that matchup:

Ohio State (12-4)

Illinois (11-3)

at Purdue (14-2)*

Iowa (9-6)

at Michigan State (9-6)*

Rutgers (9-6)

Wisconsin (12-3)

at Nebraska (13-3)*

at Illinois (11-3)*

Michigan State (9-6)

It's certainly possible that fans could see Michigan at 8-18 or even 7-19 through 26 games this season. The year could almost not possibly have gone worse for the Wolverines.

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