Phil Martelli: Juwan Howard's 'steadiness' kept Michigan afloat during rough stretch

Michigan basketball went through a tough stretch from Dec. 11 to Jan. 14 in which it lost four of five games, had three contests postponed and played shorthanded on two occasions. The Wolverines have since recovered, winning their last two, including a huge 80-62 victory at Indiana Sunday, and appear to have their mojo back.

During the rough patch, shots weren’t falling, confidence wained, the defense was lacking and many questioned whether this team would be able to climb out of the hole it dug for itself. There’s still a long way to go, which Michigan coaches and players know, but at 9-7 overall and 3-3 in league play, the Wolverines have put itself in position to fight for an NCAA Tournament bid.

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Appearing on the Inside Michigan Basketball radio show hosted by Brian Boesch and Terry Mills Monday night, associate head coach Phil Martelli shared his thoughts on how head coach Juwan Howard handled the struggle-filled month.

Martelli explained how Howard’s calm demeanor and persistence that his team will grow has reminded him of the 2019-20 season, when Michigan lost its first five road games and dropped four straight games in January but came out stronger on the other side.

“You know I’m a huge Juwan fan — he’s not paying me to be a fan — but I am a huge fan,” Martelli said. “Our first year together when we couldn’t win a road game … his steadiness, and I kept thinking, ‘He’s used to 100 games a year, and you can lose four over a two-week period and, you know what, we still have 82 to play.’ But it paid off. And this is the same thing. He’s been even keeled to the point of even being optimistic and so positive with these guys, that I think it’s been the practices as much as the actual game.

“It’s behind closed doors, it’s the practice, but it’s the messaging from Juwan that had the players feeling better.”

The light turned on in the second half at Rutgers, Martelli said. Michigan fell behind by double digits early on in the game, but the Wolverines fought until the end, even in a losing effort.

Martelli saw the effort carry over to practice and then a loss at Illinois in which they were without sophomore center Hunter Dickinson. It’s been there ever since, including in a 83-64 win over Maryland last Tuesday and the aforementioned victory in Bloomington.

However, as much as the Wolverines have been preaching that it’s a long season, giving them hope for a turnaround, Martelli knows Michigan still has a lot of work to do. How will the Maize and Blue respond when adversity strikes again?

“It’s turned in the right direction,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we’re all the way in the right direction, because one of the things that now has to happen is, we need to get smacked again. I don’t mean like at the end of the game, but let’s take Northwestern. What if Northwestern comes out and it’s 12-4, does everybody start to crumble a little bit? No man, let’s go.

“We’re the same as the team that led for basically 80 minutes now [against Maryland and Indiana], so let’s be us and let’s be really concerned with us going forward.

“I always think the measure of a team is when they get a little bit of blood in their mouth, and then they say, you know what, I’m going to be alright. It’s going to be alright. And that really wasn’t the case in December.”

Caleb Houstan Turning A Corner, Hunter Dickinson Benefitting From It

Freshman wing Caleb Houstan‘s struggles were intertwined with Michigan’s during the aforementioned five-game stretch. During that span, Houstan went 2-for-21 from three-point range despite being advertised as a high-level shooter. He’s elevated his game over the last two outings, knocking down eight triples on 11 attempts, and it’s no coincidence that Michigan has looked like a completely different team for it.

“He’s just carrying himself differently, going to the basket, getting to the foul line and these last two games fully committed defensively,” Martelli said. “He’s following the plan [on defense], and the plan is built recognizing that sometimes his feet can be attacked. The plan is being built so that if he follows it, he’s going to stay out of trouble that way.”

Martelli credited Houstan for being “unflappable” even when the shots weren’t falling, and praised his forward-thinking mindset.

Just like that, Houstan is shooting 41.2 percent from long range during Big Ten play. As a whole, Michigan has made 19 of its last 37 shots from beyond the arc over the last two games.

The rise of Houstan and Michigan’s other shooters has made life easier for Dickinson, a returning All-American who’s put up big numbers but, for a while, was the Wolverines’ only viable option on offense. Spacing issues persisted as teams didn’t have to respect the shooters and could collapse on him, and the Michigan offense suffered.

Martelli said he heard the outside noise about Dickinson being in a “sophomore slump,” but brushed it off. It’s no surprise Dickinson scored 21 and 25 points in the last two contests due to an increased efficiency from the perimeter players (including himself, at times, since he nailed three triples at Indiana).

“If the ball’s not going in, then how is he supposed to operate in a smaller space, being such a big guy in college basketball?” he said.