Juwan Howard evaluates the growth from Michigan's freshmen

Now six games into Big Ten play, the Michigan freshmen have 17 games of experience under their belts. But when head coach Juwan Howard was asked about whether they’re still “freshmen” at this point, he had to chuckle.

“No, they’re still freshmen,” Howard said. “Who says that? … At the end of the year, that’s when they get their letterman jacket. That’s when they’re no longer freshmen. You get your letterman jacket? That means you are an upperclassman your sophomore year.”

Michigan brought in three freshmen this year as part of its recruiting class, which ranked No. 11 in the country, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Rankings. All three have made immediate impacts, led by Jett Howard — Michigan’s second-leading scorer who was the nation’s No. 41-ranked recruit, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Dug McDaniel has also emerged as a key piece, leading the Wolverines with 3.4 assists per game. He was the No. 85 recruit in the country, per the On3 Consensus, while Tarris Reed was the highest-ranked recruit of the bunch at No. 35. This season, he’s averaging 3.4 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.

Howard said even though it’s getting late in the season, the freshmen are still bound to have freshmen tendencies. That’s alright, though, because they can learn from those miscues, as evidenced by how things turned around during his time as a player in Ann Arbor.

“I always go back to thinking back — I’m not that old. But knowing that when I was a freshman, Jalen Rose was a freshman, Chris was a freshman, Jimmy King and Ray [Jackson]. Our first game, we had like 30 turnovers and we still won by 30,” Howard said. “Now, I’m not saying that we’re that good and those three freshmen are that good. But at times, you’re going to see my hair starting to turn a little bit grayer if you haven’t noticed it now because that’s part of the growing pains.

“The 18 turnovers, it is not because of the freshmen — all the freshmen. But those mistakes that we’re making, hopefully by the end of the year, we won’t make the same mistakes. We’ve done a really good job overall of taking care of the basketball up until tonight.”

That said, he sees a high ceiling for his young core as Big Ten play heats up.

“They have more room for growth, man, because they’ve got a lot more in them,” Howard said. “All three of them. this game hasn’t slowed down to all three yet. That comes as you get more and more experience with Big Ten play on the road.

“But I trust that with coaching and the great staff that we have, and then also how our young men have really embraced learning and growing, we’re going to get better.”