Juwan Howard Appreciation

I'll admit it -- I was one of the Beilein haters. 

Not that I hated Beilein; of course, that would be stupid. He did a lot of good for the program; he was an elite Xs-and-Os coach, and an honorable man. We had a lot of fun along the way. 

But I was definitely one of those annoying posters who got temporarily banned from UMHoops for whining about things like:

- Not recruiting elite talent (and not emphasizing athleticism in recruiting)

- Not casting a wide net in recruiting. After courting a very specific type of 4-star player for what seemed like years, the guy would end up going to Indiana and he'd scramble to find some guy from farm country ranked #867. 

- Not coaching D (100% valid except for the last two seasons thanks to Yaklich)

- Generally downplaying big man skills (shot blocking, posting up, O-rebs)

- The slow pace of play, and taking his foot off the gas in the last 10 minutes of games 

- The auto bench -- and refusing to play more talented young guys over "senior leaders"

- Some atrocious inbounding

Now I hope that Juwan and Martelli keep the best parts of the Beilein legacy alive -- playing smart, unselfish basketball and avoiding TOs. But having watched these first few games of the Juwan Howard era, man I like what I am seeing. Juwan's team plays a freewheeling, aggressive style of basketball. We still see plenty of back cuts. He likes to run and he likes to post. He throws a wrench into the opponent's works on defense, denying entry passes and trapping. And he's not afraid to recruit the big guns, even though a bunch of people spent a decade telling me those players would never come to Michigan. 

And the man always has a smile on his face.