Juwan Howard provides update on his medical status

It’s been a long season for Michigan head men’s basketball coach Juwan Howard, and not just because his Wolverines have been struggling on the court. Months prior to the season, Howard underwent open heart surgery.

After beginning the season away from the team, he’s steadily worked back into a full-time head coaching role. But the road back to full health is a long, and Howard is still traveling it.

“I’m trying to get better, healthy. I’m trying. Every day is a battle,” Howard said. “It’s beautiful to get an opportunity this morning to go to physical therapy, three days a week.”

Howard heaped some praise on his physical therapists, nurses and doctors overseeing his care, giving them credit as his “teammates.”

“There are a lot of people, same folks that are dealing with some of the issues I’m dealing with, but we all share a common goal. We pray for one another and we cheer for one another,” Howard said.

Howard shared an update on suspended guard Dug McDaniel

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, 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 said 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.”