Howard Coaching Eval
1. Elite recruiter
2. Excellent in utilizing talent
3. High character
4. Below average talent development.
When he followed Beilein, where talent development was his greatest strength, all four components led to stellar seasons and Final Four runs.
Conclusion: JH needs to staff his weakness.
Side note: Beilein excelled in 3/4 as well.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:43 AM ^
Sometimes good coaches have crap seasons. He’s established himself as a good coach by winning the top conference in his second year. The current team has atrocious perimeter defense that won’t let them succeed. That’s partially on the coaches and I suspect we’ll see a defensive minded assistant(s) hired in the off season.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:58 AM ^
Tiny Tom up the road manages to have a clunker of a year every so often, with some pretty good talent too. He’s still NCAA royalty.
January 5th, 2022 at 6:36 PM ^
January 30th, 2022 at 10:39 AM ^
agree wholeheartedly.
January 5th, 2022 at 1:24 PM ^
Disclaimer -- I have not read all 100 responses, so if this is a repeat, I apologize.
I find it difficult to lay too much blame on Juwan's shoulders for a lot of this. First, he has a ton of young guys that need to learn to play together. Second, I don't see how anyone predicts that Houstan, who was supposed to be a plus-shooter, has been a bricklayer thus far. Similarly, predicting Jones would be a bust thus far had to be impossible. Add in a seeming regression by BJJ, who was supposed to be a consistent upperclass leader, and you have a tough situation.
That said, where Juwan has struggled is twofold. First, he has struggled at making the best of what he has. For example, if Jones is a net negative, then we have to go another way at PG. Even if another player, presumably Frankie, is of similar ability, the greater effort and the positive of getting him experience makes that perhaps a better way to go. Second, you can definitely coach up effort, especially on defense. It doesn't seem like he's doing enough of that.
At the end of the day, I don't know much, but it does seem like more can be gotten out of this team, and the staff needs to improve in a couple notable areas. Also, the football team has shown us the impact of strong player leadership, and I don't think this team has much of that right now.
January 30th, 2022 at 10:38 AM ^
agree.
January 5th, 2022 at 6:45 PM ^
This team isn’t good, and it does fall
on the coach. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad coach, but he recruits and designs the sets on offense and defense.
Houstan is :/. Against KP top 100 his shooting is even worse. Somewhere around 30 from the field and 25 from three. But JH hasn’t helped. Houstan is a college 4. That would help the spread the floor with shooters, but howard isn’t trying it. Not a great year of coaching so far
January 30th, 2022 at 10:40 AM ^
good point.
January 30th, 2022 at 10:37 AM ^
He's no different than Steve Fisher. He just needs the talent.
January 30th, 2022 at 10:38 AM ^
Although he does need to teach better defense.