For those of you that enjoy college BB and haven’t watched UM play, you should. This team is really good, fun to watch, fluid. They make everything look effortless and simultaneously play with max effort on both offense and defense. I honestly don’t recall ever seeing a more well rounded, well coached, dominate UM team. As an alum, I may be slightly bias, but damn!
9 Seniors on this team (Livers could have gone pro last season but came back).
Future NBA players including a Freshman Center and a Sophomore Forward.
#1 recruiting class coming in next year (currently 4 of the top 50 players). Also expect some grad transfers for depth (lots of slots available with those 9 seniors leaving). Juan Howard has taken Michigan Basketball to the next level.
2 Likes
and as proven again last night, a true post presence.
As much as it pains me to say it…Michigan is the best Basketball team that I have seen play. Juwan Howard has been so far what Jim Harbvaugh was supposed to be to the football team. They are gonna have to pony up and pay Juwan or some NBA team will swoop him with the quickness!
2 Likes
Your freshman center is worth the price of admission, that’s a man there.
Another test coming tomorrow against Indy. The B1G just keeps rolling big men through.
While holding Garza to 5/17 shooting in the paint was a testament to how well both Dickenson and Davis played, it screams to how well coached they are. Nobody has caused Garza to have a game like that in 2+ years. What big wouldn’t want to play for Juwan after the season Dickenson is having?
3 Likes
Iowa should have been playing an inside out game. Their 3 pt shooting is off the charts, Garza should have been feeding the ball back out of the double teams. And yes, Michigan is out coaching everyone this year too. I started a thread here about Drake University, their coach is right up there. Jared DeVries brother is their coach, they are 24-2 and lost their best player last year who transferred to Minnesota, their best player this year to a broken foot and their starting point guard for the season also to injury. They have a pretty good story too.
After a 23 day “rest”, the Wolverines return to the court today! Traveling to Wisconsin to play a team they thumped badly earlier in the season. The Badgers were ranked #7 at that time. Which team shows up?
I’m guessing the thumping kind.
GO BLUE !
1 Like
Michigan comes through with the win. Think the Davison foul really fueled this team in the second half.
2 Likes
That, was exactly the turning point. A bench technical, while an elbow hammered Smith was brutal
Oh, that and half time adjustments. God, Wisconsin is so predictable.
Howard has done a fantastic job in leading this team. His adjustments for second halves have been exceptional.
He has answered a lot of questions about his coaching this season, more so than last season as he continued with the roster he inherited. This year you are seeing a lot more from him as well as recruiting at a different level then Beilein.
1 Like
And then there’s MSU…BWA-ha-ha-ha!
Wouldn’t shock me to see Izzo retire soon. I think he’s had it with this season. He might hold out until he gets that year with Emoni though.
Seriously doubt Emoni goes to college, most MSU fans I’m friends don’t see him ever going there.
But I also think Izzo isn’t going anywhere for a while.
From Seth Davis, TheAthletic from another msg board:
Q: The “Hire One Of Our Greatest Alums To Revive The Program” gambit almost never works (see: Clyde at Houston, Mullin at St John’s, Ewing at Georgetown, etc). But Juwan Howard has been absolutely terrific at Michigan. Why has he succeeded in a situation where so many fail? — Craig S.
A: This is a highly pertinent question coming off Michigan’s amazing second-half comeback at Wisconsin on Sunday. I would also add to Craig’s list Penny Hardaway, who has done some good things at Memphis but is hardly lighting the world on fire. Here are five reasons why I believe Howard has defied this recent history:
He took over a strong program. Michigan is one of the great brands in all of sports. It had a winning culture built by John Beilein, who left Howard a stable of good players. The thinking used to be that coaches were better off taking over struggling programs and reviving them, but given the lack of impatience of fans and the media, these days they’re much better off taking over a winner and trying to maintain it.
He came in ready to work. Guys with no college coaching experience think they understand how many hours they have to devote to the job, but until they’re actually there it is hard to comprehend. Howard came in with no illusions about how much effort he would need to put forth, and he has done so without hesitation or complaint.
He hired a great staff. Howard didn’t fall into the trap of hiring his NBA buddies to be his assistants. He was secure enough to acknowledge what he didn’t know. That’s why he called people like John Calipari to ask for advice, and then followed Calipari’s advice to bring in an assistant with head coaching experience. Fortunately for Howard, Phil Martelli was on the market, and Howard scooped him up even though the two had barely spoken before. Ditto for Howard’s decisions to bring in Howard Eisley, who played 12 years in the NBA and spent nine as an assistant, and to retain Saddi Washington, who was an assistant at Oakland for 10 years and worked on Beilein’s bench for three.
The Heat Factor. Howard spent the last three years of his 19-year NBA career with the Miami Heat, and he was an assistant coach there for six years before Michigan hired him. That’s nine years sitting at the knee of Erik Spoelstra and down the hall from Pat Riley, two of the greatest basketball minds and team builders the league has ever seen. Howard brought Spoelstra’s prodigious playbook with him to Ann Arbor, but more important is that he brought a wealth of knowledge about how to create and sustain a winning culture.
Howard has “It.” This is something we can’t know for sure until a person takes a job, but Howard has proven himself to be a man of keen intellect and high character. He has taken the time to build relationships with his players and has gotten the best out of them during the worst of times. They respect his basketball knowledge and truly believe he cares about them. Oh, and Howard and his staff are also bringing in the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class next season as ranked by 247Sports.com. So you can expect this coach and this team to continue performing at a high level for quite some time.
3 Likes
I’d say that as of right now, Howard is the clubhouse leader for “Coach of the Year”.
1 Like
I think there’s a lot of good options this year with lots of teams overachieving.
Holtmann
Howard
Oats
Shaka Smart if they get it together
I forgot OU’s coach
Shaka Smart needs to be in a better program. He’s done all he can in Texas.