Jett Howard 'tried' to go against Wisconsin — Juwan said 'no'
Michigan wing Jett Howard has now missed three games this year with different ankle injuries, one on each foot. On Sunday, Howard missed his second straight game after an injury suffered against Michigan State in which he came down on a defender’s foot after a shot.
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The Wolverines pulled away from the Spartans late, winning without him down the stretch, hammered Rutgers on the road, and then pulled out a home win over Wisconsin Sunday, 87-79 in overtime.
Michigan head coach Juwan Howard said during the postgame that his son wanted to play, but dad had other ideas.
“He tried, man,” Howard said. “He tried. He practiced yesterday, didn’t go through the full practice because I didn’t want him to go through the full practice. [It’s] the ankle he’s been playing on all year dating back to before we played against Kentucky.
“… This poor young man has had bad luck in stepping on someone’s foot. You cannot control those moments. It happens in basketball [and] it’s frustrating. You want to be out there and want to play, and all of a sudden there’s a little freak accident that happens when you step on someone’s foot.”
Though Juwan Howard was non-committal, his son seems likely to give it go Thursday at Illinois. The Wolverines have several days before that one, and a win could put them on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.
It will be interesting, however, to see how the minutes are allocated when he returns. The Wolverines have been playing well in his absence, and while the 14.4 PPG-scorer can fill it up with the best of them, he has more to give in other parts of his game … especially defensively.
Without him, though, Michigan is lacking one more scorer. Center Hunter Dickinson, point guard Dug McDaniel, and shooting guard Kobe Bufkin scored the majority of U-M’s points against the Badgers, but the Wolverines could have used one more.
Jett Howard worked hard to get back and be that fourth guy, but it wasn’t in the cards..
“Yesterday he went through part of practice and I shared with him, ‘here’s the plan,’” Juwan Howard said. “I know my son. He shook his head, ‘yeah, yeah,’ and he understood the plan. I gave him the plan that, ‘we’re going to work through it and see how you feel the next day. Then we’ll have another day on Monday of treatment and see how practice goes and rev it up on Tuesday a little bit more.’
“Then, as I am working out before today’s game, our trainer said to me that Jett is going to play. ‘Excuse me? Jett is not playing. I gave him the plan. This is the plan.'”
But it didn’t surprise him that his son wanted to go. He wanted to do the same against Purdue several weeks ago after he hurt his other ankle.
“Jett is a competitor. He does not want to miss games,” Juwan Howard said. “He wanted to be out there for his team. [I said], ‘I’m sorry, son. Just trust me.'”
Michigan has moved into “next four out” territory according to ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi and could move to the right side of the bubble with a win at Illinois or Indiana this week.
