As Phil Martelli sat down in the Crisler Center media room for his postgame press conference on Wednesday, he stammered.
It certainly wasn’t a matter of first press conference jitters for the 67-year-old Michigan associate head coach. During the Wolverines’ win over Rutgers on Wednesday night, he found himself once again pacing the coach’s box as the team’s interim head coach while Juwan Howard began serving a five-game suspension. So, naturally, the postgame press conference fell within his purview for the first time since his illustrious Saint Joseph’s career ended in March 2019.
Yet as he twisted the cap back onto his water bottle and slid his chair closer to the microphone, he couldn’t find the right words. After a few moments, he settled on them.
“I’m not like one of these, ‘Aw, shucks,’ that kind of thing,” Martelli said. “But I’m here to tell you (Michigan assistant coaches) Saddi Washington and Howard Eisley just coached their backsides off. I knew when I spoke to many of you yesterday, I was confident that I could manage a game. Those two guys, just absolutely extraordinary. … What you’re seeing there is two future head coaches. America needs to know that.”
About 24 hours ago, Martelli got off the phone with Howard. The reigning AP National Coach of the Year told him he felt fine going into Wednesday, citing his belief in “the best coaching staff in America.” It’s one he assembled before his first season in Ann Arbor, and it’s stayed intact ever since.
In that moment, Howard passed the torch to Martelli and his assistants — at least temporarily. Howard is eligible to return for the Wolverines’ first game of the Big Ten Tournament, but he is not allowed at any team practices or games through the regular season finale at Ohio State on March 6. He is still permitted to contact players and coaches.
For Martelli, that meant adjusting to the familiar role of head coaching. He spent 24 years as the Saint Joseph’s head coach before joining Howard’s staff as the mentor and chief assistant in 2019. But on Wednesday, he was thrust back into the past. His approach and outlook followed suit.
“All day today, I realized, ‘Yo, you’re back.’ And the way I knew it was my stomach was a mess,” Martelli said. “I don’t believe they were superstitions. They were rituals. But for a very, very, very, very, very long time, on a game day, I would not speak to anybody, I would not shave, I would not shower, I would not eat. I didn’t want to really be engaged. … My own wife, she doesn’t count the game days as days we’ve been married.
“So today, I got up and it started. And it dissipates only at one moment in time: When I walk out of the tunnel here, when I walk on the court. Because at that point in time, to be honest with you, the work is done.”
On Wednesday night, Martelli once again found that relief when he made his way up the ramp and through Michigan’s tunnel. He was greeted by a standing ovation from the Maize Rage student section — a warm welcome that helped put his mind at ease.
Players, on the other hand, grappled with similar challenges in Howard’s absence. They’ve grown so accustomed to their leader’s booming voice reverberating throughout Crisler Center, but on Wednesday, there was silence in its place.
That wasn’t the case on their cell phones, though. Howard sent a group text to the players prior to tip off, telling them to stay hungry and aggressive while tuning out the outside distractions. Asked if they went out and beat the Scarlet Knights for Howard, graduate guard DeVante’ Jones smiled.
“That was a goal for us,” Jones said. “I know a lot of people are saying a lot of different things on social media. Coach Howard, he sent us a motivating text before the game and I think it fueled all of us.”
A nine-point win over a team with a 10-6 Big Ten record is a meaningful late-February victory on its own. But to do it with Martelli, Washington and Eisley at the helm while adjusting to a new Howard-less reality — albeit a temporary one — made it all the more impressive.
“It was amazing,” Jones said. “We learn from (Martelli), he’s learning from us. It was a great experience.”
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