Shocking Juwan Howard Postgame Comments: He's Lost the Locker Room
Shocking postgame comments from Juwan after the game today, courtesy of Anthony Broome. I don't know how you can throw your players under the bus like this, especially given that this is the roster you've assembled. Starting to feel like the point of no return...
February 4th, 2024 at 9:06 AM ^
Now it's Shaka on Lake Michigan.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:51 PM ^
Much rather have Dusty May, but his alma mater Indiana might be in the market for a new coach too...
February 4th, 2024 at 9:24 AM ^
I believe Red Auerbach is available.
And Keith Jackson can call the games
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:22 PM ^
Juwan Howard has been to more sweet 16s that’s Shaka Smart. I’m not defending Juwan but why do people keep acting like Shaka is some slam dunk hire. He has made one sweet 16. In 6 years at Texas he did not even get past round of 64. Yes his teams have done alright in regular season but at some point you must be able to do something in the tournament. I would be devastated if we hired him.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:53 PM ^
You are missing the point of the argument - Shaka Smart has had equal, if not more success than JH has had as a Coach, particularly at the college level......so why was JH immediately anointed the "chosen one" less than a week after JB resigned? Surely, you can kick the tires and find someone with substantially more HC success.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:47 PM ^
Who anointed Juwan the chosen one after one week? At the time he was respected in NBA coaching circles and generally believed he would land head coaching job at some point. JH seemed like a decent hire, but I don’t recall anyone considering him a slam dunk hire from the start, and many were concerned about lack of college coaching experience. It’s fair to say JH never should have been hired based on lack of college coaching experience, but Shaka on the other hand had experience…at being just a mediocre college coach. I think he would have been a worse hire since we actually know he’s nothing special, whereas at least Howard could clearly recruit and had enough pedigree to give him a shot.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:17 PM ^
You know Marquette is 17-5 and ranked in the top 10 right now after going 29-7 and ranked 6th last year? Let me repeat that....Marquette.....17-5.........top-10 this year.....29-7 last year....at Marquette........yep that Marquette......I guess I'll take mediocre.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:49 PM ^
Marquette has a strong history. Shaka is not the only one who’s done well there. Hell, Crean brought them to a Final Four. And they have as many National Championships as Michigan.
Smart is also from Wisconsin, so doubt he’d leave. Seems like a good fit for both school and coach. He is a solid coach, though. Did bring VCU to the Final Four. Probably wasn't in position to be Michigan’s HC after his Texas struggles, even though he didn’t do too poorly there. Would’ve done well here, I imagine. He runs a good program. It’s all hypothetical now anyway.
February 4th, 2024 at 9:27 AM ^
Al McGuire says hello.
February 4th, 2024 at 7:13 AM ^
At the time people were also saying Juwan wouldn't even have to recruit. Players would be lining up to come here............
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:40 PM ^
Just a reminder. Shaka is from Wisconsin and he is coaching Marquette, in Milwaukee. Even though he is from Madison originally, many Wisconsites love UW and Marquette, so he really might be loving the home state atmosphere again.
Just saying, he might be happy to be home and he might not be for hire.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:14 PM ^
Shaka is perhaps the most overrated coach in college bball. Would he be better than Howard? Sure and so would dozens of other coaches.
Could he build a program to regularly make Sweet 16s and Final Fours? Hell no. He's already demonstrated that he's incapable of that.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:22 PM ^
At Texas, VCU and Marquette......not exactly a gauntlet of hoops resources there.
February 4th, 2024 at 1:53 AM ^
In what way does Texas lack resources?
February 4th, 2024 at 2:03 AM ^
In what world do Texas and Marquette not have resources? Basketball is Marquette's biggest sport and Texas prints money.
February 4th, 2024 at 8:59 AM ^
So I’d like to add those that want Shaka you are basically repeating the history of going from Ellerbe to Amaker. I understand some of the love for Shaka but when they struggle in the tournament again with a seasoned team hopefully that shows how inept he can be
BTW Texas has a ton of resources for basketball
February 4th, 2024 at 6:37 PM ^
Gimmick coach. They figure him out everywhere he goes. And Marquette may be a better job anyway. It’s all they have there.
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:53 PM ^
Latest straw. Should be fired tonight. But, Manuel.
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:56 PM ^
But Manuel, lol! Fire him first and let the new AD decide on replacement.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:02 PM ^
Warde can’t pick the next coach. He should go too. Howard deserves the dignity to finish out the season. Michigan doesn’t fire coaches, nevertheless alums, mid season.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:24 PM ^
I don't really care if they fire him in February or March as long as he isn't the coach next year.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:34 PM ^
Just so long as he's gone early enough for us to be on the coaching carousel early.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:38 PM ^
Deserves the dignity?
No, sorry, not after MULTIPLE on court issues, one being physical, and an internal altercation with a standing excellent strength coach. Who then said the culture was trash. Which it is clearly
he deserves to be fired now, not in a month and change
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:54 PM ^
Warde won’t make a change mid season. Takes someone with big balls for that.
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:55 PM ^
Let him coach the rest of the year. Let this thing bottom out. Nothing whatsoever can be attained by making a change at this particular point in time. HOWEVER, the day after the season ends, he should be....um....."asked" to resign.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:40 PM ^
Disagree, benefits them more to fire him now….because Warde is then forced to start the motions.
you know he ain’t doing it when Howard is still here, all indications say he isn’t that type of AD.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:02 PM ^
LOL Warde...start...motions...
February 4th, 2024 at 6:39 PM ^
Any decent coach will be coaching in March. But yeah fire him now.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:48 PM ^
We have 7 wins, 5 of those wins Howard was not even the Head Coach
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:45 PM ^
That's a pretty grim reality. When a team begins to tailspin from the time a coach is reinserted into the equation all but suggests they no longer respect his leadership.
From an outsider perspective, it seems like Juwan is outside his depth to lead a major college basketball program, and he hasn't been able to manage the stress and pressure well. The players now see it for what it is, and have lost faith in his ability. It's unfortunate, but the writing is on the wall he needs to be relieved of his duties before next season.
February 4th, 2024 at 4:32 PM ^
what coach is coming here with our admissions program shitting on our athletics and Warde mocking NIL again? Rutgers is out recruiting UM. Rutgers.
February 5th, 2024 at 7:05 AM ^
To be fair, Rutgers has the number 2 and 3 overall ranked recruits and is ranked the third best overall class in the country. I don't know how that is possible, but apparently Rutgers is a basketball school.
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:56 PM ^
It's just disappointing seeing Juwan not address his coaching failures at all.
Just look at the women's basketball team right now. Kim Barnes Arico had to replace just as much of her roster after all the graduating talent last year, and she just took her team to Penn State and took down one of the hottest teams in the conference (won 6 straight overall, NET ranking 25).
THAT IS COACHING!
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:57 PM ^
Sanderson was right.
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:58 PM ^
Lol fuck Howard.
Warde needs to do what has to be done and fire Howard ASAP.
But he probably won’t. If he lets Howard continue, they both need to be shown the door instead.
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:59 PM ^
He knows he should move on.
February 3rd, 2024 at 7:59 PM ^
Put Cheddar, Jace, and a couple others on a top 25 roster and they are waving towels unitl 1 minute left on the clock.
We brought in... checks notes.. 1 recruit to replace al the players we lost last year. I think we have 2 sophomores and 1 freshman on a team going nowhere. You cant even sell the "Next year" shit anymore.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:03 PM ^
If Howard sticks around there may not be enough to field a team next season as I'm expecting a mass portal exodus if so.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:04 PM ^
Recruiting fell off of a cliff after advent of NIL. Is that a coincidence? I think not.
Juwan was recruiting just fine his first couple seasons. Warde Manuel is a useless fuck.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:21 PM ^
Can we stop with the NIL nonsense? Yes we know NIL is a problem. Yes Juwan recruited a great class at one point in time. He then proceeded to take that class and barely make the tournament as an 11 seed. The problems with this program are way more numerous than just NIL.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:49 PM ^
Totally agree man. I’m done hearing the NIL shit. Yeah it’s been a big sore spot for top 5 star guys , but I’m also a WSU Coug fan and Cougs would mop the floor with this team…and Cougs have zero NIL…ZERO
Kyle Smith is an excellent coach, goes international for awesome guys, finds diamonds in the rough throughout the recruiting process (Myles Rice), and Cougs are a bubble team right now. Howard has none of those coaching skills.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:07 PM ^
Sounds like a candidate if we get a coaching vacancy.
February 4th, 2024 at 4:33 PM ^
why would he leave a better program to come here again?
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:47 PM ^
"Yes Juwan recruited a great class at one point in time. He then proceeded to take that class and barely make the tournament as an 11 seed."
I hear you, but just want to say that these two things don't necessarily add up. A great class can't also be an 11th seed.
I think it would be better to say that Juwan recruited a great class of players with NBA draftable measureables, who the NBA wanted, even though they couldn't actually produce winning basketball in college.
Losing basketball and players still go immediately to NBA . . . you just can't build anything concrete on that foundation. And now we have this.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:22 PM ^
All true, but Howard started his own son and gave him minutes (both in practice and games)he didn't deserve just to make sure he could go immediately to the NBA, thus helping to torpedo team chemistry and our ability to win games. So, he's the one who laid our crappy foundation.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:21 PM ^
I don't know whether recruiting falling off a cliff can be attributed to NIL or not, but we have definitely lost to teams this year with less NIL available than us.
Furthermore, a lot of people have pointed out how the football NIL has been much more successful than the basketball NIL. There's a good reason for this: football NIL is a good investment, basketball NIL is not. We've seen Juwan get highly rated players only for them to look like ass, not make the tournament, and only stick around for one year. One of them was his son!
Whether the NIL is coming from companies actually wishing to promote their brand or just from boosters who want to see wins, Juwan's player's are a bad investment. That's on Juwan.
February 4th, 2024 at 10:27 AM ^
In terms of investment, it seems like there is a lot more uncertainty all across college basketball.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:00 PM ^
Whatever
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:02 PM ^
Good news all, only ... /checks notes ... seven months until football season.