It seems like yesterday for those of us who were fortunate enough to be in attendance — freshman Juwan Howard doing his “cabbage patch” dance in front of a strong U-M contingent after the Wolverines upset Ohio State in overtime to advance to the Final Four.
The scene at Kentucky’s Rupp Arena in Lexington was almost surreal, but Howard and his Fab Five teammates warned people it was coming. They were going to “Shock the World" back in 1992, they insisted, and that’s what Howard yelled to the cameras as he made his way back to the locker room.
“I told you!” he yelled. “I TOLD you we were going to shock the world!”
He’s done it again, leading the Wolverines to a Big Ten championship and No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed. In doing so, he becomes the only person in history to have earned the one seed as both a player and a coach, shocking the world again.
On Wednesday, Howard played it coy when asked if he remembered the day 29 years ago when he was the “old soul” (or as Jalen Rose remembers it, ‘the adult in the room’) or a group that didn’t know any better that they weren’t supposed to be there. There were grays on his head and in his goatee, he quipped, rubbing the top of his scalp, and the first thing to go was memory, after all.
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He laughed before recounting all the memories that in some ways feel like yesterday to both him and those who witnessed it.
“A very exciting time for all of us being that it was our first NCAA Tournament,” Howard recalled. “We looked forward to that moment back when we first started our first practice Oct. 15. Fast forward through all the adversity we went through throughout the season our first year, we end up in Atlanta. We met Muhammad Ali, which was an amazing time spending 40 to an hour and a half hanging out in his room.
“Leading up to the first game vs. Temple, they were called the favorite to win that game with the matchup zone, but we did an amazing job competing from start to finish. There was excitement, nervous energy, but when that jump ball started, the game took off, we were locked in the moment. All that nervous energy went out the window and it was all about embracing the competition.”
They made the National Championship game that year before falling to Duke, but are still remembered as a revolutionary team in all of sport.
At the time, Howard was only thinking about college, a possible career in the NBA and playing as long as he could. Three decades later, the nervous energy is of a different sort — leading his players into battle as U-M’s coach.
“I would never, ever have thought of something like that happening,” he said. “It was not the plan.”
Nor was coaching at Michigan when he was interviewing for NBA jobs as a Miami Heat assistant two years ago. He was watching television when he saw the news that head coach John Beilein had resigned to take the Cleveland Cavaliers job — to say it got his attention would be an understatement.
He told his wife he was going to interview and hoped for her blessing.
“We never got into the ‘what if,’” he said. “But I know before there was an interview process … I was like, ‘wow. This is possibly something special that can happen here, but who knows. But it’s available.’ This is the only college job I would strongly consider. My reason for that was my love and passion for Michigan.
“I wouldn’t say I was confident [she’d be good with it]. I just know my wife knew how I felt about Michigan, knew about how I was excited about being a head coach someday. She’s been super supportive during my career playing in the NBA with the change of different teams, uprooting our family, moving city to city.”
She’s always adjusted, he marveled, and now she’s part of the community. That’s made the experience all the better, and while NBA teams are sure to come calling, it seems he’s here for the long haul.
Michigan fans wouldn’t have it any other way.
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