Phil Martelli elects not to comment on Juwan Howard's incident

The Michigan basketball program has had an entire week break between games as it prepares to take on Eastern Michigan at Crisler Arena on Saturday.

The time off certainly wasn't quiet, though, as the program was marred by an off-court incident between head coach Juwan Howard and strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson, which occurred before the game against Iowa.

The incident somehow made its way out into the public and took on multiple forms before it was determined it was between Howard and Sanderson.

As the incident now goes into review by the university, acting head coach Phil Martelli met with the media for the first time since the news broke about the incident and elected not to speak on the issue.

"Everything is in Warde's hands," Martelli said on Friday. "That's as much as I have on it."

This is accurate, the findings of the incident by the ECRT review will ultimately end up in athletic director Warde Manuel's hands, who will then determine the next steps.

Howard is currently on a zero-tolerance policy after his suspension for striking a Wisconsin assistant coach during a game last season.

Martelli has not been instructed to not speak on the issue, rather he wants to see things play out knowing that Manuel will be responsible for handling the outcome of the investigation.

"Everything's in Warde's hands and, also, because of the seriousness of it all," Martelli said. "Speaking for one person, I have, as you all know, a lot of these national guys are at least acquaintances if not friends of mine and I just haven't talked to anybody. I think it's too sensitive and one word in a sentence could change people's view of it. It's not easy because I know what's being said.

"There's no benefit for me to comment. When I was told that it's in Warde's hands, I said, 'That's perfect.' That's the perfect answer. I have no speculation, I have no expectations, I have no deadlines. It's in Warde's hands and that's where it should be whether that means it's currently active, or a decision has been made, I don't know that. I just don't know that."

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With some speculating that December 16 would be the return date for Howard to take over as the head coach, it's still unknown whether the game against Eastern Michigan will signal Howard's return.

As of Friday, Martelli was unaware of Howard's status and whether he would return.

"I think that there is still, maybe, a doctor's clearance," Martelli said. "I don't know enough about it because of the privacy thing. There's nothing that I have at whatever time it is, 4 o'clock. All progressions, all benchmarks are being met and not only his doctors but I think the medical staff at Michigan, Warde and Juwan's family to decide what is the next appropriate step. The next appropriate step would be for him to quote, unquote, run the game but I don't know that at 4 o'clock."

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