Juwan Howard with a remarkably classy statement about coaching at Michigan
“I want to thank the University, Board of Regents, and AD Warde Manuel for the privilege of coaching Michigan, my university, for these past five years.
During my tenure as head coach, we shared memorable seasons and achievements, including a Big Ten championship, back to back Sweet Sixteen appearances and being within one game of the Final Four. I was honored to be named AP National Coach-of-the-Year and the Big Ten Coach-of-[the]-Year in 2021.
My devotion and dedication to this program and most importantly, to my players and their family, provided a challenge that I welcomed and embraced, which required me to grow and expand my capabilities both personally and professionally.
My health challenges during this past season tested my resolve, but true to the form of a Michigan Man, I stood and faced them, with the support of my family, players and staff. I want to give a special shout out to All players I coached… you guys were and will always be my EVERYTHING!
Michigan will always be a significant part of my legacy, and I will be a significant part of theirs.”
Michigan Man Forever.
Go Blue!”
Juwan will always be a Michigan legend. Who is the part of the most famous basketball team in college basketball history. He also coached us to markable season before things started to trend downwards. It’s hard to be fired, especially from your beloved university - particularly when the beginning of the season involved a life-threatening, open-heart surgery. And yet, here he is releasing such a classy, thoughtful, and inspiring statement. Coach Howard made a couple of serious mistakes (as we all have), but his character of caring for others and treating players like family members speaks for itself. Congrats on your career playing and coaching at Michigan, and best wishes in your next endeavor Coach!
Not sure why a classy statement is a surprise. Didn't really expect anything less from him.
It is remarkably classy, but I can agree it is not particularly surprising.
Agreed, but still appreciated and I wish him nothing but the best success. I think the NBA would be a better calling for him, good luck Juwan!
March 18th, 2024 at 12:01 AM ^
Indy Pete, you are also all class...well posted.
OP said “remarkably” and not “surprisingly” and while used in common parlance in similar ways, remarkable means “noteworthy” or “extraordinary” - the word has more positive connotations than negative. It’s worthy of note, I’d say.
But if he had gone with “surprisingly”, ( which he didn’t), I’d say it’s still appropriate given that while I’m sure a good human overall, it’s fair to say incidents like the Wisconsin slap, the threatening to kill (as a turn of phrase) another head coach, and the altercation with Sanderson which were factors in the decision to not retain him and at least point to the fact that Juwan at times like many of us can struggle with anger issues and he may have felt this a situation in which anger could have felt justified. As with all mankind, we are all these things, classy and rude, angry and caring, kind and cruel, loving and hateful. It was great to see Juwan leave on this note, and I hope that both he and the basketball program go on to great things.
Thanks for saying this - I tried to graciously imply this in my response. (Trying to follow Juwan’s lead on being classy).
Not sure why you think anyone said it was a surprise?
It was a nice statement. We don't need to care whether it was expected or surprising.
Just enjoy it.
Apparently the statement was a direct copy from Chat GPT lol. But who cares, you got fired, you don't need to make a statement. He's a legend for being a part of the fab five. He sucked as a coach here, for whatever reason. The end
Michigan Man Forever
It is good to see Juwan take the high road. I think everyone very much wanted him to succeed and I am glad he didn't burn any bridges on the way out the door.
We'll always have the Cabbage Patch celebration.
If you go to about the 1:39:00 mark, give or take, after Jalen Rose hits a couple of OT free throws, Jim Nantz and Billy Packer just shut up for well over a minute and let us listen. It's one of my favorite moments from that game. I don't know why exactly; it just is.
Announcers nowadays don't know how to do that. Thanks for posting. I went straight to that time to watch it again.
Thanks for pointing that out. Loved watching it. I remember watxhing that game and wondering every five minutes how we were winning and how time raced by.
Hands down the best fight song. Goosebumps every time, especially occasions like this.
To be fair [Letterkenny voice] didn’t Klatt/Gus do this for the last minute or so of our 2021 trouncing of An Ohio University? But yeah, should happen more in big moments
Billy Packer shutting up is a minor miracle.
A couple years before, Brent and Packer called the UNLV versus Loyola Marymount Elite 8 game. Loyolas magical run ended there. With about a minute left Brent said: “Both these teams with so much to be proud of. Let’s just watch and enjoy the last minute here - UNLV going to Denver and the Final Four.”
Not two seconds (!!!!) later Packer yaps in with some inane comments!
March 18th, 2024 at 10:55 AM ^
Best basketball game I have attended in person. Was living in Cincinnati at the time, so drove down that morning with a couple of friends and scalped tickets. UM crowd was vastly outnumbered. OSU band and crowd would drown out any attempts of Go Blue or the Victors until the end. Lots of sad Buckeyes heading back up I-75 that night.
People are complex. I love this version of Juwan. Other facets of his personality still need some burnishing. Still, last Friday was a sad day for me.
Agreed. That's why it's important to not judge people absolutely based on a couple incidents, without considering their other positive contributions. Juwan has always loved Michigan and his sratement shows that. He didn't work out as head coach, so be it. Michigan and he can part on good terms and go their separate ways.
I hope their separate ways includes visits back to Crisler for Juwan - along with the 'Standing O' he so richly deserves for his playing days (every time he's spotted in Crisler). I said this last week also - despite that coaching didn't work out, Juwan had better not ever have to buy his own beer in Ann Arbor.
While it was necessary based on the collapse of the team and the players seemingly quitting at certain points late this season, I took no joy at Juwan getting fired - I really wish that it could have worked out as the promise from the first 2-3 years was so immense.
Glad Juwan took the "classy' road and didn't burn bridges on the way out. I met him a couple of times back in the day - he was a friend of a guy who lived across the hall from me on campus. Always seemed like a genuine and friendly guy.
Let's just hope that we can find a coach that can rebuild the program within 2 years and get back on the track that we were on from 2017-2022 when we made 5 straight Sweet 16s.
No…. Further words on this topic
Ha! I accidentally clicked on "Save" before I was finished with my post. I kind of like how you finished it for me - perhaps better than my edit. LOL...
And let's hope the university finds ways to help the coach and the program.
At least he went out on a high note.
It is a nice letter; but this is a coach that likely wants to continue to do so probably back in the NBA. A classy letter is the only way to make that aspiration a reality.
Sad he couldn't make it work in Ann Arbor, good luck to you Juwan.
There's no reason to wish ill on Juwan on his way out the door. The experiment didn't work, and he's clearly not cut out to be an elite P5 CBB head coach - which is true of most people. I hope he is able to return to the NBA in an assistant capacity and find success in a role like that.
I'm grateful to him for the good times, especially during that dark lonely Covid winter of 2020-21, when Michigan basketball felt like the only good thing happening. I wish him well in the future.
Really, really, wanted him to succeed as a coach. Bummed that it didn't work. Weirdly, I think my lasting appreciation for him came from the grit he showed in the loss to that Arkansas title team.
He was the best player in the 1994 NCAA tournament - bar none.
If Juwan coached at almost any other school he'd probably be a lot more successful long term. Being able to attract guys like Shannon and Love, yet not get them because of reasons that basically only apply to Michigan is tough.
Losing Diabate and Houstan during their first year which was mostly developmental was a learning moment about cbb roster construction
Would be interesting to see him at a different school. If he went to a smaller school and attracted one of those big transfers he would be fine.
Hot take: Juwan Howard is a good guy who just couldn't get it done as the head coach.
I think the job was just a bit too big for him. No real shame in that, being a head coach in a Power conference program is too much for 99.99% of people.
March 18th, 2024 at 12:37 PM ^
I don't think it was "too big for him." I think he's just a better NBA coach. No shame in that, not many seamlessly transition from one to the other.
Hotter take: JH learned a ton about himself by being the head coach and having to make decisions instead of being an assistant like he was in the NBA. He’ll use that experience going forward in his basketball and beyond endeavors.
He got hosed with admissions. With Love and Shannon and this is a real team. As angry as I was about this season, we have to remind ourselves of this.
I don't think that's right. For one thing, it's not like our admissions requirements are a secret. Juwan should have been working with those requirements in mind, not recruiting players who clearly couldn't satisfy them.
Also, I'm one of the few people who thinks this team has decent talent. His failure to coach them up was one of the biggest problems Juwan had as a coach. I don't believe for a second that Love and Shannon would have had the years here that they had elsewhere.
All that being said, I'm on the record as a Juwan supporter, and I would have been ok with him staying another year. This is a truly unfortunate end to a tenure that started with so much excitement. I respect the hell out of Juwan, and I wish him well.
Don't get me wrong... He had to go, for the sake of the program.
March 17th, 2024 at 10:36 PM ^
Admissions became a much bigger problem after he took the job because of the changes to the transfer rules.
Admissions wasn't that big of a deal when he took the job because everyone was pretty much limited to grad transfers. The disadvantage came when they opened it up because now you have your players leaving whenever, but now you're limited to Freshman and grad transfers. While every other team in the country can get undergrad transfers. It's a one-way street. Hunter played 3 seasons at Michigan, didn't graduate, and transferred to Kansas for NIL.
People bring up football, but there's a much greater talent pool of grad transfers in football than there is in basketball because more good players redshirt, you have to wait three years before you can go pro, and football players start a college a two semesters (winter and spring/summer term) and graduate in three years now.
Look at JJ for example. He graduated and entered the draft before he turned 21. He could've been a grad transfer had he decided to take that route. That's not happening in basketball.
Dickinson too.
This is why Warde didn't pay Dickinson because he was saving money for Juwan's buyout.
Y'all playing Chutes & Ladder while Warde playing Parcheesi.
Don't think Warde paying Dickinson is part of the AD job description. Really??
While admissions were a huge problem, that quickly became a well-known issue that needed to be worked around. But there were clearly also issues beyond the talent level of the guys who ended up wearing the uniform.
The admissions office really didn't do the program ANY favors.
His time as head coach changed nothing for me. Loved him before. Love him now.
Really wish it worked out while he was here. That 2020-21 season was a thing of beauty, and it wasn’t all Beilein’s guys. There were plenty of “his guys” on the roster who were very meaningful contributors. On some level, Juwan can coach. But maybe he just needs the right circumstances in place.
I take no joy in his firing. I’ve been fired before, and it’s one of the most deflating, humiliating feelings you can ever experience. I just hope he uses this time to reflect, find out where he can improve, and get back on his feet. I imagine we’ll see him in the NBA ranks again before too long. Maybe that’s where he’s best.
Sorta wish he did a better job coaching and building a culture of winning so that he wouldn't have had to issue such a classy statement after getting fired for sucking.
Wow. That's.....unkind.
Funny how many people here seem to dismiss his statement as ... almost inevitable, or insignificant as self-serving. Fact is, lots of people who want to continue their careers in coaching are unable to resist the temptation to make defensive, angry comments on their way out (see also Gattis, Josh).
And being fired does suck. I would not have been surprised at the least if Juwan simply stayed silent, at least until the pain from what must have been a serious disappointment disappeared. To have the self-control, the class, and the grace to make this kind of a statement in a difficult time is impressive.
We loved you as a player, Juwan, and we continue to cheer/support you in whatever adventure you take on next. Thanks for your efforts on behalf of the University of Michigan, and godspeed. Go Blue!
I would not expect anything less from Juwan Howard