Howard Wins Another Award, Off To One Of The Best Starts Of Any U-M Coach
The hardware kept rolling in for Michigan Wolverines basketball coach Juwan Howard today. The U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) announced this afternoon he was their recipient for the 2021 Henry Iba Award, given annually to the national coach of the year.
The accolade is named after legendary Oklahoma A&M (who has since changed its name to Oklahoma State) coach Henry Iba, who led his Cowboys squad to back-to-back national championships in 1945 (over New York University) and 1946 (over North Carolina), while advancing to the national title game for a third time in 1949 before falling to Kentucky.
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The three other finalists Howard beat out for the award were Baylor's Scott Drew, Gonzaga's Mark Few and Alabama's Nate Oats.
Howard is the fifth Michigan head man ever to win National Coach of the Year honors, joining Dave Strack in 1965, Johnny Orr in both 1976 and 1977, Bill Frieder in 1985 and Steve Fisher in 1992.
The 48-year old was also named Sporting News' National Coach of the Year earlier this month, and was the unanimous selection for the Big Ten's Coach of the Year this season.
His Maize and Blue squad currently holds a 20-4 record after finishing with a 14-3 mark in league play, which was good enough to win the regular-season title outright. It was U-M's 15th all-time Big Ten regular-season championship and the first since John Beilein's crew won the conference by three games in 2014.
Michigan proceeded to earn a No. 1 seed in this year's NCAA Tournament, marking the first time it had done so since Howard's sophomore campaign as a player in 1993. Frieder's '85 Wolverines were the only other U-M squad ever to earn a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance, before being upset by No. 8-seeded Villanova (and eventual national champion) in the second round that year.
Having compiled a 39-16 overall record so far at Michigan, it's no surprise Howard is off to arguably the best start of any head coach through his first two full seasons in school history.
His 70.9 winning percentage (though that number will change, depending on what happens in the NCAA Tournament) is the second best mark of any coach through his first two years ever at U-M, trailing only the 73.3 winning percentage George Veenker posted in 1929 and 1930.
Like Howard, Veenker also grabbed a Big Ten regular-season championship during his first two seasons in Ann Arbor (1929). The coach whose debut two-year winning percentage comes the closest to matching Howard's and Veenker's is Osborne Cowles' in 1947 and 1948, who went 28-14 (66.6 winning percentage) through his freshman and sophomore coaching campaigns.
Oddly enough, several of the best coaches who have ever walked the sidelines at Michigan struggled mightily during their initial two seasons on the job. Strack, for example, led the Wolverines to the Final Four in 1964, the national title in 1965 and the Elite Eight in 1966, but posted a miserable 13-35 record (27 winning percentage) after accepting the job in 1961 and 1962.
Both Frieder and Orr put together impressive resumes during their tenures in Ann Arbor as well, but nevertheless went 26-31 (45.6 winning percentage) and 23-25 (47.9), respectively, through their first two respective seasons.
Beilein, though, takes the cake on this discussion. His first season of 2007-08 featured the most losses of any team in school history (22), en route to racking up a dismal 31-36 mark (46.2) during his first two years as the U-M head man.
In the 10 seasons immediately following that, Beilein's clubs won two Big Ten regular-season titles, two conference tournament championships and played for two national titles.
| First 2 Years | Coach | Record (Winning Percentage) |
|---|---|---|
|
2020 and 2021 |
Juwan Howard |
39-16 (70.9) |
|
2008 and 2009 |
John Beilein |
31-36 (46.2) |
|
2002 and 2003 |
Tommy Amaker |
28-31 (47.4) |
|
1998 and 1999 |
Brian Ellerbe |
37-28 (56.9) |
|
1990 and 1991 |
Steve Fisher |
37-23 (61.6)* |
|
1981 and 1982 |
Bill Frieder |
26-31 (45.6) |
|
1969 and 1970 |
Johnny Orr |
23-25 (47.9) |
|
1961 and 1962 |
Dave Strack |
13-35 (27) |
|
1953 and 1954 |
William Perigo |
15-29 (34) |
|
1949 and 1950 |
Ernie McCoy |
26-17 (60.4) |
|
1947 and 1948 |
Osborne Cowles |
28-14 (66.6) |
|
1939 and 1940 |
Bennie Oosterbaan |
24-16 (60) |
|
1932 and 1933 |
Franklin Cappon |
21-14 (60) |
|
1929 and 1930 |
George Veenker |
22-8 (73.3) |
|
1920 and 1921 |
E.J. Mather |
28-17 (62.2) |
|
1918 and 1919 |
Elmer Mitchell |
22-20 (52.3) |
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