Juwan Howard back and closer to full strength — will Michigan be?
The Michigan basketball dynamic has been a unique one over the last several weeks, with head coach Juwan Howard serving in an assistant coach role while recovering from heart surgery. Though Howard was still coaching in practice, associate head coach Phil Martelli took the reins during games with Howard on the bench, making for some interesting circumstances.
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Howard picked up two technical fouls during a loss in the Bahamas to Texas Tech and was tossed from the game. Other times, he’s sat stoically on the bench while Martelli and the rest of the staff did most of the coaching.
Given what he’s been through, it was just good to see him there healing. But now it’s time to see what the team can do with him back in charge, firing on all cylinders.
“Calling it the way it is — it was bumpy in The Bahamas trying to to navigate our way through,” Martelli admitted Friday. “I thought Juwan took somewhat more of a visual step back, if that makes sense, at Oregon. I thought he did the same with Indiana, and I thought he did the same with Iowa.
“He has been very active in practice — don’t anybody mistake that. He’s watching as much film as ever. He engages in thought-provoking conversations with whoever’s scout it is. We as a staff meet every day for multiple hours organizing practice, organizing the game plan, breaking down the previous game. I think the only thing that will change … he’ll stand up and and I’ll sit down. I’m not going to say it was seamless, but he’s been very engaged. He’s not a spectator; he’s a participant, and has been a participant … before The Bahamas. He was back and his voice was heard, and his hands were on the plan and the adjustments that we made in all those games.”
But now it’s time for Howard to take full control of a 5-5 team coming off a huge win at Iowa. That one was an early season-saver after a bad home loss to Indiana, and the Wolverines will have an opportunity to get move toward the bubble heading into January Big Ten play with a handful of wins. It starts today with Eastern Michigan. This team needs to cut down turnovers, play better defensively, and bond in the aftermath of an incident between Howard and strength coach Jon Sanderson that could keep Sanderson off the bench for a while.
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Martelli noted there are two ways this can go — it can fracture a team, or it can bring them closer together. It’s up to Howard to make it work.
“Everybody’s family on this call has had bumps along the way; they’re just not public bumps,” he said. “Certainly, these are opportunities to grow closer. It’s not us against the world, or any of that kind of stuff, but I think that the value each person brings to the program can be accented in times of stress.
“There have been ‘X’ number [of incidents], but I think if you turned over the rocks in every program, they would be there — as they would be in every family. Do you come out of them better? That would be my biggest takeaway.”
We’ll find out soon enough which way Michigan is trending. But it’s Howard’s show again, and time to make a move to get the program back where it should be.
