Juwan Howard describes the state of Michigan team entering February

With football season ending, more and more sports fans are working their way over to the basketball court. That means new attention on teams, even for ones like Michigan who have struggled this point of the year.

Even so, Juwan Howard doesn’t want those new eyes to misinterpret his Wolverines, even if they are 7-13 and in last in the Big Ten at 2-7. As he assessed his team in a press conference on Monday, he made it clear that Michigan remains a group that is still fighting even at their current position.

“Our team is fighting hard,” said Howard. “They’re so prideful, very competitive, and they don’t like losing. Who does?”

Howard also characterized Michigan as a unit that’s self aware and trying to improve. Although they could very easily blame one another for their issues, he sees a group that’s trying to grow individually in order to help their team find some answers overall.

“The last two ball games that we lost? Those moments mentally. What can I do better? I love hearing that from our guys,” said Howard. “That has been the mindset instead of finger pointing or divide as far it’s this guys fault or that guys fault.”

“We have guys that are all dialed in to being all in and trying to figure out solutions,” Howard said. “That’s the beauty of coaching this group.”

Michigan was playing .500-level basketball over the course of their non-conference season to start out. However, since the back half of December, the Wolverines’ campaign has come apart.

The maize & blue are currently on a stretch of eight losses over their last nine. A double-overtime loss to Florida started that stretch off. That was before they returned to Ann Arbor and suffered a loss to McNeese by 11.

Now, since the turn of the year, Michigan has gone 1-6 to start out in the Big Ten. They started with a three-game losing streak with close defeats to Minnesota, Penn State, and Maryland. After a win over another team that’s struggling in Ohio State, though, the Wolverines have dropped three more consecutively, with all by double digits, to Illinois, Purdue, and Iowa.

With that said, Howard says no one in their building is tapping out as they close out a poor month in January. They have one last opportunity in the month before he plans on them continuing their battle over the final 10 games of the season.

“My staff and I will continue to keep leading, continue to keep growing and teaching our group,” said Howard. “We’re going to continue to keep competing.”