Juwan Howard on Dug McDaniel's status: 'Nothing's changed'

Michigan guard Dug McDaniel was put on a six-game academic suspension back on Jan. 10 and is set to return on Saturday against Rutgers.

At the time, Wolverines head coach Juwan Howard released a statement revealing that McDaniel did not uphold the high standards of the Michigan basketball program. Once his suspension is over, he will not travel with the team to any road games and will only dress for games in Ann Arbor.

Howard was asked about McDaniel’s status ahead of Tuesday’s matchup against Michigan State.

“Nothing’s changed, you know what the road is,” Howard told reporters on Monday. “You’ve seen the reports. What makes this different? … We don’t look at who we don’t have. We get locked in on the guys who’s gonna put that jersey on. And when everyone that’s gonna be available, we trust that those guys will give us the best chance to win.”

McDaniel is Michigan’s leading scorer averaging 17.2 points per game while also boasting a team-high 5.1 assists per game as well. He also averaged 4.1 rebounds and 1.0 steals per outing during 18 appearances for the Wolverines.

Additionally, it was revealed that forward Tray Jackson is set to return to Michigan’s lineup after undergoing a small procedure to mend a small fracture on his nose. He will wear a protective mask when he plays the Spartans.

“Tray’s still working his way back,” Howard revealed. “But the flow of the game is we had a hell of a thing going on a good run with Jace [Howard] and Will [Tschetter] in there. And they played extremely well, with the amount of points that we scored with the two of them in the game, I think we had scored like 12 to 14 points.

“And then when it got subbed out the game, that’s when the scoring drought ended because I inserted all the starters, with eight minutes to go and we couldn’t score after that. So it was tough to bring Tray in. But he’s available to go.”

Michigan heads into the matchup having lost eight of its last nine games. The Wolverines are currently in last place in the Big Ten standings, and a win over their in-state rival would go a long way in starting their turnaround.

Tip-off between the Wolverines and Spartans in East Lansing scheduled for 9 p.m. ET live on Peacock. ESPN analytics gives Michigan State an 88.2 percent chance of defeating the Wolverines at home, while KenPom predicts a final score of 78-67 in the Spartans’ favor.