Juwan Howard jokes about playing at Michigan State as player, coach

The Michigan Wolverines found themselves on the wrong end of a blowout on Tuesday night as they were dominated by in-state rival the Michigan State Spartans, falling 81-62. Wolverines head coach Juwan Howard was none too pleased with his team’s defensive effort on the night and made his feelings known about their lack of execution in the postgame press conference.

But Howard’s postgame comments were not all just business as usual. At one point, when fielding questions, the Michigan head coach and former Wolverine in his own right was able to crack a joke about the difference between his playing days and his current stint as head coach.

“Which team? Me playing or me coaching? I thought you were going to say me playing because I had a lot of success here playing, and we can go back to those records,” said Howard. “I’ve had a ton of success, and actually, I used to love playing here. This is one of my favorite places, and I got a lot of wins here. Now, as coaching, it’s been a challenge getting wins here. And this is a tough place to play. We always try to duplicate the same thing when they come to Ann Arbor. We’ve had success with that as well.”

As a player, Howard sports an impressive 5-1 record against Michigan State, with the only loss coming in his freshman season. However, as a head coach, he has split the series with the Spartans every year but is 4-5 against them, with the Spartans picking up the first win between the two teams on Tuesday on their home court.

Howard and Michigan must find a way to quickly turn things around as they are currently the worst team in the Big Ten conference this season. All jokes aside, if the Wolverines continue to struggle, Howard could find himself getting the hook like a comedian struggling on stage at Showtime at the Apollo.

Howard takes responsibility for Michigan’s defensive struggles

A significant reason why Howard’s Wolverines came up short against the Spartans on Tuesday was because of porous defense. Following the 19-point defeat, the Michigan headman took ownership of his team’s defensive struggles this season.

“I would say that we will continue to keep working on it. It’s a mindset; you have to really want to be dialed into wanting to play defense,” said Howard. “It’s not going to show up in the box score, it’s not going to show up on highlight moments, but you gotta have those moments where a guy’s driving in [and] contesting at the rim. And even though he dunks it, you challenging it is part of the game; it’s okay to get dunked on.”

“We can have blow-bys, can’t have uncontested shots we give to open shooters for three. That’s part of it. And I take full blame as a coach. I take the blame; it’s on me. So we’re gonna work on it; we’re gonna get better with it.

In Michigan’s last four games, they have given up an average of 91.5 points per contest while averaging just 70 points per game themselves. If this trend continues, the heat on Howard’s seat could very well be turned up full blast with the Wolverines in the market for a new men’s head basketball coach at the end of the season.