Audio and More: No, Juwan Howard is not on the 'hot seat'
Juwan Howard and Michigan will face Michigan State tonight with a chance to slow the bleeding after two tough losses. The Wolverines faded down the stretch at home against Indiana and again at Wisconsin, the way they have in too many games this year, and are on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble by a long shot.
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This is the second disappointing regular season in as many years, but there are extenuating circumstances. For one, head coach Howard prematurely lost two freshmen to the NBA Draft in Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate. Both could just as easily been back at Michigan for a second year — instead, Howard and his staff had to retool the roster.
Still … Michigan should be better than it is this year, and the off court antics are magnified when they’re not combined with production on it. We joined former Michigan guard Stu Douglass to talk about this and more on his podcast Thursday:
At the same time … no, Juwan Howard is not on the hot seat. The point guard situation took a hit when Frankie Collins decided to bolt for Arizona State and and Jaelin Llewellyn — who was recruited for depth, because Michigan obviously needed another guard — blew out his knee against Kentucky in London.
As our MHoops1 (Jeff Schiller) wrote recently, that’s put too much on freshman Dug McDaniel‘s shoulders. His progress will likely be the biggest factor in any immediate Michigan improvement.
“The hoops key going forward is point guard play, especially if you run an offense with heavy ball screen action (as they do now and did under John Beilein for most of his tenure),” Schiller wrote. “You absolutely need high-level point guard play to be very successful. Look at the surprise teams in the Big Ten this year — Maryland and Northwestern — and note that those teams are getting great point guard play from Jahmir Young and Boo Buie respectively. Conversely, look at the most disappointing teams in the Big Ten this year, Michigan and Ohio State. The point guard play from freshmen Dug McDaniel and Bruce Thornton has been erratic and unreliable in close games.
While teams like Purdue which are less ball screen dependent, are less reliant on great point guard play, it’s no accident that Purdue tends to come a bit unraveled late in seasons and in the tournament when the Boilers face teams that can disrupt the point guard and force them out of their preferred actions, he added.
“Obviously, what happens to the roster in the postseason, both in terms of whether and what attrition we see from our high level guys and how they replace them through the portal (or less likely, through late season high school recruiting of guys who flip after coaching changes) is vitally important to next year’s results,” Schiller continued. “However, I’m not convinced that it is more important than what they get from the point guard position, whether that is from a more mature and experienced McDaniel or from someone else.”
But Howard has had success here, including a Big Ten title, and Elite 8 and a Sweet 16 in his three years. He runs good stuff on offense, Douglass agreed, and is just getting started as a head coach.
For any talk about him being anywhere close to the “hot seat” … well, he’s not. And if he keeps several from this roster from bolting, including sophomore Kobe Bufkin (who is rising up on draft boards), the 2023-24 Wolverines will take a step forward from this year’s disappointment.
But the 2022-23 season isn’t over yet, either. We’ll see what they have left in the tank, starting tonight against the Spartans.
