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 7:10 AM ^
Better news - hockey is now, and looking better by the week.
Just swept osu in their shoddy rink then plays msu at Yost & LCA next weekend - with post season implications at stake.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:04 PM ^
Thanks, Juwan, for giving it a try, but you’re in over your head.
take your millions and retire, or go continue to do philanthropic work. You’re a good man but can’t handle this.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:53 PM ^
A good man doesn’t…checks notes…lose his shit multiple times on a national stage.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:07 PM ^
A good man can have anger issues. Not everyone is perfect lmao.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:24 PM ^
That has nothing to do if he's a "good" man or not. I'd say a good coach doesn't do that, but Izzo has gotten away with it for decades and he is a good coach. So, IDK.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:05 PM ^
well, he's not wrong. if falls on him, his culture, but at least he sees it the same as we do.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:25 PM ^
Does he though? Seems like he thinks his culture/coaching is fine and it's the players who aren't responding.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:13 PM ^
Wow, that's like, some Brian Kelly-ass throwing your guys under the bus. That really sucks.
To be honest, I was ready to see him go after the altercation between him and the staffer at Wisconsin. At that point, I'm not sure I felt like he needed to be fired, but it was more like- if he got fired for that, it would have been understandable, but a bummer. Now, though, seeing his teams fall further and further apart, it's more than apparent that this isn't salvageable.
February 4th, 2024 at 4:34 PM ^
Izzo does this annually and people fap aggressively to him outside of AA.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:15 PM ^
If the starters aren’t motivated, that’s on the coach.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:17 PM ^
I'm more than fine with being just a football school
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:58 PM ^
Fuck that, UM has the resources to be good at both. Zero reason to settle for just football.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:17 PM ^
Yeah. I want Juwan to succeed, even after this. But this is like losing in FB to Toledo, except by giving up a 3 TD lead. Time to amputate the gangrenous limb and, cauterize the wound. Bite on a bullet while the field surgeon applies the rusty saw and disinfects it with carbolic acid. Who's next up? We've never been just a football school. I expect a final four our at least once every decade. That's been our history all my lifetime.. with one interruption last time we made bad HC hires.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:20 PM ^
He just painted himself into a corner with those comments - he has effectively said he is either an awful recruiter, an awful coach or an awful motivator.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:58 PM ^
Or all of the above.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:23 PM ^
Get him out of AA tomorrow.
how dare he say that shit. This is your team , you built this, and Dickinson saw this from a mile away. Yeah he got the bag, but he would’ve been gone anyway IMO.
you went to elite 8 and sweet 16 with JB guys coupled with Hunter.
im so over Howard. Yeah yeah Fab 5 this and that, but please GTFO
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:23 PM ^
Too bad you can't blame this on Covid. It's not clear there is any plan to fix this mess. The locker room must seem like a morgue. Lack of discipline, total breakdowns in almost every game, fighting coaches, even your own. It's difficult to rationalize keeping this guy around any longer.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:23 PM ^
2014 Michigan football was like this. The team was so poorly coached, it made coaching seeming really hard (it is). With Beilein and Harbaugh Michigan fans were so spoiled.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:59 PM ^
I dunno. I think this is actually worse. The 2014 team was young and was returning lots of guys in 2015. Its not too hard to see Hoke going 8-5 in 2015 (especially when you consider under Harbaugh the 2015 should have had an extra win against MSU except for..you know that thing that happened).
This team? What will next year's roster even look like? I would imagine almost anyone who can leave will leave and the recruiting class is almost certainly going to fall apart.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:25 PM ^
It all got a lot worse when Jett came to Michigan. I don’t know if that caused any of the dysfunction that’s permeated the team since, but he led the charge for the no-defense club.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:30 PM ^
Honestly though, the team wasn't great the year before either. They were 17-14 after losing in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. They were 17-15 at the same point last year. Throw out one memorable blowout of Purdue in the 2021-22 season and neither team makes the tournament.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:00 PM ^
Yeah, the '21/22 team made the sweet sixteen but it wasn't a cherry on top of a nice season. It salvaged what was a rather pedestrian season.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:28 PM ^
The HC played his own son over other guys who tried harder and played better just to improve Jett's draft status. That 100% made things worse.
February 4th, 2024 at 7:15 AM ^
I would say it's more the recruiting & playing preference of Juwan: he goes for flashy players over core "glue guys". Those flashy players either bolt for NBA (or money elsewhere) or they flame out. Hard to build a culture around that.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:27 PM ^
The decision to reassign Sanderson and keep Juwan two days after the incident without a full investigation seems dumber by the day.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:57 PM ^
This is a good point. My annual HR conflict resolution for bosses training would argue that it was also negligent. But this is a pattern in our AD somehow.
February 4th, 2024 at 12:19 AM ^
It's not a question of usefulness. It's a question of rules.
There was some kind of confrontation. A report was filed.
Either it was punishable misconduct by Juwan or it wasn't.
But if it wasn't, but it's an untenable work situation, Sanderson can't be fired, but they can't work together anymore, so you reassign Sanderson. You don't keep Sanderson and axe Howard just because you want an excuse to move on from the coach.
If Warde overlooked punishable behavior by Howard, that's wrong whether Howard lost all his games or won all of them. If he didn't, then he can't drop Howard for that.
Which is not to say that Howard can't be held responsible, overall, for managing his staff and player relationships. That's a separate issue where on-court performance can matter.
And it's pretty clear that the bottom dropped out after that confrontation, whatever the actual specifics of the event deserved. So Howard will, indeed, deal with consequences for it.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:29 PM ^
I would say that you throw them under the bus if you're hoping to light a fire under their asses. It's not for everyone, but calling a player out sometimes can be effective.
I am very frustrated, but I still have a hard time blaming him 100%. If admissions wouldn't have screwed him over with Shannon and Love this would be of completely different team. But ultimately you have to play with what you got and it's been trash and that's hard to overlook.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:39 PM ^
Exactly. People are really underestimating the impact of admissions and NIL with basketball right now.
This literally the most transfer freedom in the history of the NCAA and we have the most restrictive transfer admissions in college athletics. It’s not worth the headache for most undergrad star athletes.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:32 PM ^
Nope. It's not NIL or transfers. Teams with way fewer resources, little to no NIL, less talent according to recruiting services, and no big-time transfers are playing much, much, much better than Michigan and would wipe the floor with Howard's current team.
February 4th, 2024 at 12:31 AM ^
Right. While there's some merit to the points about NIL, that can't be the whole story. We lost to McNeese St and Long Beach St at home! Are we really to believe that those schools' athletic departments have more resources than Michigan's?
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:58 PM ^
I guess in a world of so many talented basketball players....Shannon and Love are the only good ones who we need to recruit in order to win. There are no others.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:00 PM ^
you are your record
excuses are for the losers, alas
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:23 PM ^
Exactly. Theres validity to NIL and transfer issues hindering our team, but for fucks sake we’re last in the big 10.
There are plenty of teams in our conference that are doing way more will less resources. It’s a coaching problem. Period.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:15 PM ^
It's not admissions. It's the departments. If you are transferring into Michigan, you are going to have to take the vast majority of your upper level classes in your major at UM. Upperclassmen transfers don't get denied. They're just not going to have a lot of credits transfer. Harbaugh figured this out and did great with the transfer portal bringing in grad transfers and on sometimes a transfer after their freshman year.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:29 PM ^
He thinks this is the NBA. That comment is exactly something you say to professionals. It's clear that he knows how to do strategy, but cannot develop and motivate players. That's why it looked so good with Beilein's guys, especially Eli Brooks.
It's time to go. The problem is that I don' think anyone trusts Warde to make the hire. This is the second time he's hired a coach who sunk a basketball program that was handed a great situation (at least UCONN had the miracle national title run).
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:29 PM ^
He thinks this is the NBA. That comment is exactly something you say to professionals. It's clear that he knows how to do strategy, but cannot develop and motivate players. That's why it looked so good with Beilein's guys, especially Eli Brooks.
It's time to go. The problem is that I don' think anyone trusts Warde to make the hire. This is the second time he's hired a coach who sunk a basketball program that was handed a great situation (at least UCONN had the miracle national title run).
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:34 PM ^
He did this a couple weeks back too. He said a coach can’t instill heart in players. Throwing the players under the bus is a massive red flag. If only there was someone whose job it was to recruit players who care and to motivate them …
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:38 PM ^
If the walk-on's know how to run a play, I'm 100% in favor of letting them play. What we got now is a bunch of players playing schoolyard ball and constantly having to be talked into lining back up to yell we got next?
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:50 PM ^
What else is he supposed to say?
It's not working, and it sucks. But let's stop the firing now talk. Let him finish out season.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:55 PM ^
Why? Why should he finish it out ?
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:30 PM ^
I’d rather hear some coach speak that touches upon coming together to get common goals. I’d like to hear him take responsibility for not fostering the right environment.
Like Brian said multiple times, they got rid of one of their biggest defensive liability and brought in 2 transfers from teams that had good defenses, and our defense is garbage.
its mostly a coaching issue. He should own that.
February 4th, 2024 at 2:16 AM ^
So we are never going to admit the HD bashing here was incorrect? The blog was thrilled to have Reed's defense to replace Hunter's. You can't remove your "biggest defensive liability" and then have your defense suddenly turn into one of the worst defenses I've ever watched at Michigan. I really miss his offense but even his defense would be an upgrade to this team.
February 4th, 2024 at 7:06 AM ^
What else is he supposed to say? Blaming the players for not caring enough is the opposite of what he’s supposed to say. He brought these players here, and it’s his job to motivate them. If they truly don’t care (which I highly doubt is true) then that’s on him. And of course the players probably *do* care very much, they are just poorly coached and playing in a system where the culture stinks.
February 3rd, 2024 at 8:53 PM ^
Enough is enough. He's clearly not the coach this program needs.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:02 PM ^
Yikes. I haven't been following the team, but it's definitely an indictment on Juwan that he doesn't even know enough to know he should try to motivate his players? Does he not realize these are college kids? Maybe he should go back to the pros. Blaming all the issues on his 19-22 year-olds and their level of "buy-in" is passing the buck, not leadership. He recruited these kids after all, right? Why not recruit players that want to win if he thinks that's the only problem?
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:04 PM ^
Fire warde and juwan!
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:05 PM ^
and Borges!
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:11 PM ^
Gotta go talk to 2 straps about that