Juwan Howard Says He's Here To Stay, Is Making All The Right Moves
The last few weeks have been like a national commercial for Michigan basketball and Juwan Howard. The Wolverines head coach has gone on national shows nationwide, joining former Fab Five member Jalen Rose on the Jalen and Jacoby Show and Chris Webber on TNT to promote the program and talk about his team, a group he credits for helping make him look good.
Everyone knows, though, that Howard has done an incredible job continuing what former coach John Beilein built. He made it clear to Rose that he wasn’t anywhere close to finished, squashing any “Howard to the NBA” rumors before they got started again.
“I’m in Ann Arbor to stay, baby,” he said with a grin. “I love Michigan; I love my job, and I’m enjoying it and this experience. I’m also looking forward to growing each and every year and developing these young men to become the best versions of themselves as student-athletes.
“This is a dream job for me. I think my passion last year showed how much I appreciate being in this position.”
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He was talking about his initial press conference, one in which he shed tears while being introduced as Beilein’s successor. It was there that he expressed not only the desire to succeed, but the need. One of the reasons he brought experienced assistant Phil Martelli on board, he said, was to have a guy with experience next to him because he couldn’t fail his alma mater.
It just wasn’t an option.
For many coaches, it’s about themselves first and foremost. Howard has shown with his actions as much as his words what he learned from all his best coaches through the years, including Steve Fisher at Michigan … that ‘us’ is how you build culture.
You’d be hard pressed to find a humbler superstar, one of the reasons his team plays so hard for him and why he’s such a good recruiter. He wants success for his players even more than for himself.
“It’s a great feeling,” he told Webber and Co. of earning a No. 1 seed. “All the hard work you put in, the passion and love you have for the game, to be able to impact young men that have those same goals and dreams and are on a similar path. “I’m not saying their path is going to be identical to mine, but to help develop them and serve them in any kind of way possible, it’s a dream come true.”
But he also admitted that yes, he also had something to prove — both to himself and to his doubters.
“I’ll never forget a reporter asking me, ‘do you hear the noise as far as what media or people are saying?’” he recalled. “First time coach, no college … don’t know the game. That right there, it inspired me … but, I had that drive, that love. I didn’t really try to perform because of what I heard. It’s just my DNA, how I was brought up.
“Coming from Chicago, my grandmother riding me to instill that hey, you’ve got to work for everything you go after. Nothing is given to you. That’s real [stuff]. Excuse my language — it is what it is.”
He also knows he’s got an opportunity to open doors for other minority coaches, as well, an under-represented group in the coaching community. That’s another example of putting others before himself.
“People that look like me, play the game of basketball that want to go into coaching someday … I can’t mess this up, because it’s not just my path,” he said. “I’ve got to be there and be successful for those guys, too, looking to be a head coach someday on the collegiate level.”
It’s one of the reasons a guy who made millions of dollars in the NBA is a tireless worker on the recruiting trail, bonding with kids who fit the culture. There are a lot of great institutions out there, he said, and he admits he’s biased in calling Michigan ‘the best college in the world,’ noting he feels it in his heart.
He’s searching for kids who will feel the same way. He found four in freshmen Hunter Dickinson, Terrance Williams, Jace Howard and Zeb Jackson, and the staff has prided itself on getting the most out of them in the classroom and on the court.
Watching their growth and how much it’s meant to transfers Mike Smith and Chaundee Brown, too, have reinforced what Howard always suspected. Once he got back to Ann Arbor, he’d have a hard time leaving again.
“The NBA, it’s a beautiful game. They have great coaches there, amazing, talented players, a beautiful brand,” he said. “But I enjoyed that experience for 25 years, 19 as a player and six as a coach. I’m going to stay and keep growing with Michigan.
“Go Blue!”
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