Juwan Howard says developing chemistry ‘takes time’ for newcomers

Michigan lost their third straight game on Saturday and their 12th in Big Ten play this season falling to in-state rival Michigan State 73-63 at home in the Crisler Center.

It’s been a rough season for the Wolverines who currently sit at the very bottom of the Big Ten standings with just three wins against conference competition despite having experience and proven players on their roster. But following the loss, Michigan head coach Juwan Howard explained how on-court chemistry has potentially gotten the best of the Wolverines this season.

“We do have experience, we also have guys that are new that have just been playing with each other for a few months and it takes time,” Howard said. “It takes time to develop that chemistry.”

Of the eight players who logged minutes for the Wolverines on Saturday, three joined the team through the transfer portal this offseason. With George Washington III joining the team this season as well as a true freshman and Jaelin Llewellyn transferring in from Princeton ahead of the 2022 season where he played in eight games before suffering a season-ending injury.

“Fortunate enough, and I’ll just take our opponent for example, they have a roster where four returning starters I think, and that’s really rare in college basketball today, today’s college basketball,” Howard explained.

“So when you have a team, like we have another team in our league that has four returning starters, you’re actually a step ahead of a lot of the other teams because you have that familiarity. You’ve also developed that chemistry, you understand the system, and with that there’s a lot of built in trust on both ends.”

The defensive end of the floor is where things have not clicked the most for the Wolverines, giving up more points per game to opponents this season than any other Big Ten team with 78.9 per contest.

The Wolverines’ lack of cohesion can also be seen offensively through their assist numbers, with Saturday’s loss representing the first time in their last six games they’ve had more assists than their opponent.

“We have to continue to keep grinding, we’ll continue to find those of course who want to be here and want to enjoy growing as a player and doing it as a team because that’s what’s always been our success. Playing together, playing hard, playing as one,” Howard concluded.

Michigan has five games remaining in the regular season to improve their chemistry ahead of the postseason. Which starts with a matchup versus Northwestern on Thursday at 9:00 p.m. ET.