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 3rd, 2024 at 9:28 PM ^
And Bakich!
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:13 PM ^
Here's the thing, Juwan is technically right. 1st year they were on track for a 6 seed and playing well. 2nd year they did make the Elite 8 and probably should've made the Final 4 if not for the Livers injury. Hell, maybe they win it all. Third year, yes, they made the Sweet 16, but they BARELY got in and a lot of people felt they shouldn't have. Last year they barely got over .500. This year? It's abysmal.
His teams have gotten progressively worse every year since that Elite 8 season.
Another Michigan coach who saw their teams get worse and worse? Brady Hoke.
Hoke got 4 years. Juwan got 5 (incl. 2019-20 which is unfair to judge anyone by).
And that's not even mentioning him jawing at Turgeon, or slapping Gard, or apparently getting into an altercation with Sanderson.
It's time.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:26 PM ^
He didn’t slap Gard, it was the Wisconsin assistant.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:52 PM ^
I don’t get that our fan base forgets that everyone with talent that he has had has left unexpectedly and is now in the nba, and the university admissions has hurt people we wanted as transfers
.And he broke his heart. So, fucking take a breath and see what happens next year. It sucks to suck, but you idiots forget the kinda good works since he has been here.
Although, next year being crappy is probably time for a change.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:10 PM ^
You trash people for seeing what they see and they are dumbasses. You make excuses but offer zero evidence that next year will be better. Set aside emotion. Look at the data set. This team isn’t improving. The program isn’t improving. Nothing suggests improving. His work is declining and the heart issue did not start it.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:36 PM ^
Remind me of the good works please.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:40 PM ^
LOL. What does his heart problems have to do with anything? If he can't do his job because of a medical reason, THEN HE SHOULDN'T BE HEAD COACH!
It's not unfair, or cruel, or anything, it's just the way it is. And unlike 99.99% of most citizens, he would still have generational wealth if he did have to resign or be fired because of it.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:25 PM ^
Who left unexpectedly besides Frankie Collins? Houston/Diabate were known one & dones.
It's also Howard's job to maintain the roster.
February 4th, 2024 at 12:22 AM ^
Those are fair points, but you’re neglecting the fact that motivating the players and getting them to perform is the coach’s job. He cannot lay the blame at their feet without indicting himself simultaneously. The discouraging thing is, apart from the results themselves, that he offers no real solutions. “Rolling up our sleeves and continuing to do what we’ve been doing” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. This is our concern, dude
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:01 PM ^
Wait...so on track for a 6-seed is a good thing with that amount of returning talent? We finished 9th in the B10 that year and had to win the 8/9 match-up against Rutgers to get to 20 wins....please stop pretending (whether him, you or both) that that was some amazing year.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:14 PM ^
Is anyone surprised?
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:18 PM ^
After the Sweet Sixteen run in 2022, I remember a brief dalliance with Juwan/Lakers coaching opening.
Ultimately, he stayed at Michigan.
The ensuing two seasons are the "make-up" for the close call with moving on from Harbaugh after the 2020 campaign.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:24 PM ^
shocking. Shocking. SHOCKING.
Jesus fuck none of that was shocking. He's a coach who's struggling and has a team who's struggling and probably isn't very good anyway. Nothing he's spoken has been sensational.
Find new words. There's a fucking book for it.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:42 PM ^
Your comments are shocking.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:42 PM ^
Sure. Flabbergasting even.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:30 PM ^
The only thing I’ll say in juwan’s defense is that I do think he knows how to coach. That 2020-2021 team was led by Beilein players, fine, but without Hunter, Mike Smith, Chaundee, Franz (who was recruited by but never coached by Beilein), and the Austin Hatch renaissance, that team doesn’t make it even remotely as far as it does. They certainly don’t win the Big Ten. That was a GREAT team, and it wasn’t all Beilein guys.
im not saying this team hasn’t hit rock bottom. It has. I’m just wondering what happened in the last 2-3 years.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:10 PM ^
That was also the COVID season which as we now know was largely a fake season in all sports. A lot different playing in road arenas with no fans. Also that team put up one of the most atrocious offensive performances I’ve ever seen in that UCLA loss.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:39 PM ^
What is shocking about this? Or shocking about what he said?
We knew this year was gonna be rough. Settle down. It is awful, not that unexpected.
Super frustrating to look so great in the first half of every game and then lose by 10+
but we kinda saw it coming, and he has had success.
February 4th, 2024 at 10:05 AM ^
So it’s ok to suck as long as we saw it coming. This isn’t his 1st year which is about the only reason your logic would make sense. You're either a contrarian or are just wearing blinders when it comes to Howard.
February 4th, 2024 at 10:51 AM ^
We’re in 14th place in the Big Ten. We were out of even NIT contention in January. We lost at home to McNeese State and Long Beach State. Also we’ve been outscored by 95 points in the second half of games. Oh and we lost Sanderson because of an altercation with Juwan.
Knowing it was going to be a rough reason is one thing, but shouldn’t include any of those things.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:49 PM ^
We're past the point of no return. Well, past it for anyone other than Warde.
On that note, maybe Juwan needs to coach a team without any of his kids on it to make whatever his system is work. Warde may give him time to do that.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:54 PM ^
Setting aside a litany of other things, isn't it sort of alarming he has apparently been sticking to the same roadmap in the face of things CLEARLY not working the last couple years?
February 4th, 2024 at 9:04 AM ^
This is a point that should be discussed more. They haven’t changed one thing up. Their biggest defensive move is to use that absolutely disgusting terrible match up zone into man that the players clearly can’t execute. On the off chance they do the good coaches hunt the mismatch once they manipulate the defense into the man to man portion.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:54 PM ^
bunch of weird guys
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:54 PM ^
Not sure I’m buying any NIL excuse at this particular moment. The top two in the B1G standings are Purdue and Wisconsin. Do they REALLY have better NIL programs for their basketball teams than we do? Purdue and Wisconsin?
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:08 PM ^
You can farther. The top half of the Big Ten standings are: Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska, Northwestern, Michigan St, Minnesota. I can't believe Nebraska, Northwestern or Minnesota have better NIL programs for their bball teams than UM.
February 4th, 2024 at 8:56 AM ^
It’s clearly Northwestern’s famously lenient admissions and transfer policies that are keeping them above us.
February 4th, 2024 at 9:04 AM ^
A lot on here did not want Chris Collins as coach. Guy is a star! He is my top choice to take Howard’s job.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:59 PM ^
This coaching staff is stealing money at this point. Broom everyone.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:07 PM ^
This guy is a total embarrassment. Slapping coaches, verbally assaulting coaches, grabbing the ball while it’s in play, letting his kid shoot 27 times a game, letting his other kid be on a D1 roster when he wouldn’t even start in the MIAA, punching a staff member, allowing the team to get progressively worse, not showing up for 2nd halves of games, and basically saying walk-ons care more than the starters he rolls out every game. Fuck this guy. Thanks for the playing days but it’s time to get rid of this fraud.
February 4th, 2024 at 9:09 AM ^
You’ve also forgot wearing a ski mask to Wisconsin and also wearing Free Juwan shirts that made no sense.
And of course the biggest most hilariously thing he has done is the Dug suspension. Can’t believe chemistry sucks with a kid who doesn’t take care of his responsibilities still getting 38 min at home games knowing damn well he can’t play in a road game. If I’m a parent of my kid in this program they are gone immediately after season
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:08 PM ^
Worst team in 16 years?
Sadly, Juwan is not the man.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:08 PM ^
suddenly looking at all the guys leaving early to go play in the D-League in a whole new light.
“oh, I’m outta here…”
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:11 PM ^
This pisses me off to the max.. You address your players in the locker room, don't embarrass them in a presser. Its 1 of 100+ reasons I hate the Izzo's of world. Coach Harbaugh , Kirby, and coach K etc would never do this in a presser.
February 4th, 2024 at 12:18 AM ^
Ha, the shit on this blog that people say….you must’ve not heard the weeks worth of rent that Sam Webb did after Kirby spent his entire post game press conference after the SEC championship game attacking a freshman linebacker who blew one of the plays.
February 4th, 2024 at 8:04 AM ^
I watched Kirby's 2023 sec championship post game presser. He didn't blame any players, perhaps it was a different year ?
I'll happily put Kirby in the izzo of the worlds if what you are saying is true. There's several coaches who operate the way Juwan did last night and several who refuse to blame the kids/ players to the media.
Attitude reflects leadership..
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:24 PM ^
Sucks, I really hoped he'd be a 20 year coach for us. But the slaps and the losing are just too much. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me has a plan going forward because I can't even think of a shortlist for possible replacements.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:29 PM ^
You're right. No coach has ever done this before.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:31 PM ^
"What stops the bleeding is pride?" No actually, it's teaching the players quality first step perimeter defense with active hands while not over-committing yourself then walling up without reaching, trying to sloppily block a shot or fouling....all of this is done with an abundance of connection/communication and aggressively hedging and undercutting screens and rolls and beating your man to the spot.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:32 PM ^
They need to fire the players too. Yes I know Juwan built this team but he did it with a limited budget.
Watch Warde is about to scale the football team right on back.
Cheap, cheap, cheap. Yes, Juwan is part of the problem but to my knowledge Michigan hasn't put 1 NIL package together to convince 1 of the several kids that Juwan put into the NBA to stay....not 1.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:33 PM ^
The right thing to do.
1. Let him finish out with 10 more losses to go 7-25, worst in UM history.
2. Have Santa tell Warde in no uncertain terms - either you fix the hoops program NOW or your successor will. Warde panics when he realizes his UM gravy train is ending so he does the shocking firing.
3. After an embarrassing loss in the B1G tourney (probably another blown lead), Juwan is either fired or given an exit package.
4. Hire either the FAU, New Mexico, Utah State, or Creighton coach. Tell them they can fill the roster as needed.
5. Sant to tell Warde his future is based on the hoops hire. If he blows it, he is a goner.
February 3rd, 2024 at 11:13 PM ^
No the right thing to do is fire Warde now so he doesn’t get the chance to replace Juwan with his original choice Ed Cooley, who is 1-9 in the Big East btw.
February 4th, 2024 at 7:34 AM ^
I love dunking on Warde and all, but Cooley is in year 0 trying to rescue Georgetown after a decade of irrelevance. I'm not saying we should hire the guy, but pretending that this season is indicative of Cooley's career is completely disingenuous.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:35 PM ^
Howard and Bufkin left early and got drafted in the first round, Hunter leaves for more money in NIL, Caleb Love and the kid from Europe can’t get admitted, Papa Kante asks for his release from his NLI, and his PG is not allowed to play in away games. This year was doomed before it even started.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:50 PM ^
IMO, I don't buy the "doomed" from the start. The players on this team are good enough to have managed to squeeze into the NCAA tournament this year, especially given how terrible the Big Ten is.
Anyway, there are at least 50-100 teams much better than Michigan right now who have no big recruits, NIL programs, or a coach paid 3 million a year. We haven't even been competitive except when other teams just happen to miss shots.
February 4th, 2024 at 12:22 AM ^
Just for reference....Tarris Reed, Dug McDaniel, Jaelin Lleyellyn, GW3, TW3, Nkamhoua were all ranked higher than Livers, Teske, Simpson, Brooks, MAAR and DJ Wilson
(and if going off of HS rankings, so were Burnett and Tray Jackson)
February 4th, 2024 at 2:02 PM ^
I remember when fans wanted Beilein fired. Good thing that the AD didn’t listen then or we would have never seen the above mentioned players develop into fan favorites.
February 4th, 2024 at 7:51 AM ^
Captain of the ship sitting solidly on the ocean floor. I would wager the season was on the edge of a knife before the season started due to coaching deficiencies, and then any chance of the players overcoming this fell apart leading to what we see today. I feel badly for the players....not for the coach.
February 4th, 2024 at 8:51 AM ^
Yeah, sure, we need to lower our admissions standards to compete with athlete factories like Northwestern.
February 3rd, 2024 at 10:43 PM ^
I was a FR engineering student when UM started 0-13 under 2nd year coach Bill Freider in 1981-82. Included were back to back to back losses to EMU, WMU, and Detroit. We finally got things going with a shocking win over Ohio and finished 7-7 after an 0-13 start.
Difference is that team has very little experience and had two highly recruited FR in Eric Turner, Leslie Rockymore and (injured that year) Tim McCormick.
This team - has NOTHING. Dug is NOT the guy and will be gone after the season (if he thinks the NBA will gamble on him, buy some scratch off tickets, Dug).
I guess Warde is likely to give Juwan one more year under the 2020=Harbaugh clause plus he is afraid of change.