Jett Howard reveals the value of Michigan's players-only meeting

Michigan Wolverines shooting guard Jett Howard explained that the team’s players-only meeting, which happened before the Maryland game and after the Central Michigan loss, has helped the team.

“It was a very good meeting,” Howard said.

“We just wanted everybody to be open and tell each other how they felt about everything that transpired in weeks past, and, to be honest, I think we needed that to move forward.”

“Hunter [Dickinson] was obviously vocal in it. Myself, everybody kind of played a big part, which was great. It wasn’t one person just speaking, speaking at the same time. We kind of let everybody share their piece. It was very beneficial to us, I think, and now we had a good win because of it, in my opinion, and we’re in the driver’s seat now. So, I think it was good.”

Following the loss to Central Michigan, Michigan beat Maryland 81-46 in Big Ten play. Jett Howard was asked about this, and what the team can take away from how they prepared from this game moving forward.

“My biggest takeaway is we all started to hold each other accountable more and we didn’t really care if someone felt a type of–like you know how sometimes people get down when you give them criticism, but everyone is open to criticism and not having a bad attitude with it,” Howard said.

“And, everyone was just like, kind of on top of each other and the sense of urgency was very high. So, I just felt like that loss to Central Michigan was very unacceptable and we felt like our standard was high and we kind of let our fanbase down by that loss, and we just want to come back and change that. Because Maryland is a good team. So, we knew we were getting into it.”

Michigan’s next game will be against Penn State on January 4th.

Hunter Dickinson on the player’s-only meeting

After the Maryland game, Hunter Dickinson confirmed there was a players-only meeting, explaining why it happened.

“We had different types of meetings, amongst the team, amongst just the players,” Dickinson said.

“Just talks about how we need to go through the rest of the season. There was like a heart-to-heart. Obviously we have the talent. We’ve shown that in the games. If you really want to look at it, ten or so points go different ways, we could be like honestly 12-1 right now, just if a couple certain points went different ways. We’re not as bad as the 8-5 record shows. We’ve had games where we’ve just folded at the end. For us, we’ve got to keep that in mind when we’re going into these games. Like, we’re talented. We’re a very talented team. It’s just a matter of are we going to come out and bring it offensively, are we going to bring it defensively? Are we going to play as a team, are we going to do our assignments? I think that it’s a matter of us not beating us out there.”