Wolverine Watch: Juwan Howard Isn't Playing

It’s one thing to attract a free agent in college basketball. It’s another altogether to make it work on both sides.

That’s one major element that took Michigan from a predicted sixth-place Big Ten finish to the conference championship and the NCAA’s Elite Eight, according to U-M radio play-by-play man Brian Boesch.

Juwan Howard — NBA background, Fab Five mystique, humble, hard-working and ultra-competitive persona — is going to attract interest. Period.

Interest doesn’t always equal instant success. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future production (ask Michigan football, circa 2008-10).

But Howard worked some magic this past year. In guard Mike Smith, he took a super scorer in the Ivy League and sold him on becoming an all-around player with a shot at One Shining Moment. With guard Chaundee Brown, he convinced a career-long starter in the ACC to dive into a Competitors Only mindset and win far bigger than he ever had before.

You want to win and sustain it in college basketball these days? Better get used to it. Howard appears a master of it, only two years into his Michigan coaching career.

Early exits? Recruiting at an extremely high level? Uncertainty about the roster from year to year? That could grate on some, to the point that they cry uncle.

Howard throws his arms open wide and says come to papa. We’re family. And we’re going to win — big.

So far, so good.

“[Mike Smith] admitted, ‘It’s hard to change your style of play,’” Boesch pointed out.

“He needed this just as much as Michigan needed him. That was a big part of what Mike recollected, on the conversations last year with Juwan Howard and the staff. Michigan needed a point guard, and Mike Smith needed to prove himself and needed to show a more well-rounded game.

“So if you’re undersized, and you aren’t an elite defender, you can’t just score and play in the NBA. You have to do other things. Mike Smith proved that.”

Howard proved plenty as well. Instead of being put off by the challenges of college basketball as it presently exists, he’s staring them down and turning them to his — and Michigan’s — advantage.

Boesch sees in the head coach someone who is very well positioned to do so.

“I think he’s uniquely qualified to take advantage of this current situation,” Boesch asserted. “If you’ve been in college for a long time, this is a pretty significant change. Juwan Howard, at the end of his playing career and the start of his coaching career, he was at the real start of where NBA players recognized their power, recognized their ability to change their situation, their ability to move around.

“Contracts became shorter. Deals became shorter. He was right in the middle of this. He succeeded, amongst a bunch of change. I really wonder how that experience has helped him in this spot.

“If you are a 25-year college coach, well, this is unique. The transfer portal has got four digits worth of student-athletes in it right now. He’s used to this. This isn’t a surprise. There are plenty of things he’s had to adjust to in the college game, but this isn’t necessarily one of them.”

Establishing a culture is great, and Howard has clearly done that. Keeping going what Michigan rolled out this year involves more than culture, Boesch stressed.

“That’s why last year was so important,” Boesch reasoned. “If Michigan does what a lot of people thought they were going to do, and you finish fifth or sixth in the Big Ten and you’re out in the second round of the NCAA Tournament — those were a lot of the projections around Michigan basketball — I still think Juwan Howard can bring in a lot of real talent.

“But this? It has just allowed him to take it to the next level…

“You get people to buy in through the culture that Juwan Howard has been able to create. That’s step one. But I don't care how good of a culture you have and how great of a coaching staff you have, part two is, you have to win.

“You need to see and have a palpable [approach] that came to fruition. Yes, this culture is going to lead to wins. You sacrifice for winning. The first two years of this regime, that has happened.”

It’s set to happen again, with a lineup that should feature center Hunter Dickinson back for a second season, junior forward Brandon Johns Jr., fifth-year senior guard Eli Brooks, five-star forward Caleb Houston and last year’s Sun Belt Player of the Year Davante Jones, in via free agency — not to mention the rest of the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class.

“It plays, doesn’t it?” Boesch quipped. “It feels like it has a real chance to be a Big Ten contender and a national contender.”

It plays, all right. And Howard isn’t playing.

(To hear more from Brian Boesch on the Wolverines, listen to today's podcast ).

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