Juwan (not Justin Feagin)
I thought of it again when I finally listened to the WTKA interview with Hunter (which was great by the way), but players seem to all call him Juwan instead of Coach, Coach Howard, even Coach Juwan, etc. I really can't recall another coach whose players call him by his first name. Imagine State players saying Tom or Tommy. Has anyone read about why? I assume it's been discussed and is simply Juwan being casual and a players' coach and that the answer isn't terribly interesting. Still, I thought I'd ask since it's unique and slow on the board these days.
They should call him by the name of his presenting sponsor.
The should call him The David and Meredith Kaplan Men's Basketball Head Coach Juwan Howard, and they should call him that EVERY time.
That will make for an interesting 5 second violation during a game!
You forgot to add "brought to you by Carl's Jr." at the end.
WTF??
The real question is what do his sons call him?
Old J
That’s actually a good question if everyone else calls him Juwan.
Probably "Dad".
Juwan Feagin
This is one of the reasons Tom can’t recruit anymore.
Mr. Coach Izzo**
Mr coach izzo presented by rocket mortgage.
Shorty
Lil Tom
Tom Thumb
Half Pint
Karen
You forgot Miles Finch or Elf
Elf is perfect.
Whenever I see a photo like this, I imagine Juwan saying "And you better make my kids' toys right next time, dammit!"
Old Tom
Real Old Tom
Dead Tom
Underrated
Izzo is appropriately rated. He gets plenty of credit for longevity, wins and some tournament success. Listen to the announcers during every one of MSU's games.
Izzoverrated.
Perhaps he does not think you need to treat 18-22 year old men like they are school children and instead could speak to them like fellow human beings?
I feel like it's a bit of an odd take that calling somebody "Coach _____" is some kind of demeaning action. In high school I'm pretty sure nearly every coach in every sport was that format regardless of how much we respected them or they respected us. It just tends to be what flows best for whatever reason. Hell, the one guy who we just called "Jim" was probably the coach who we had the least mutual respect with. The football team calls Harbaugh "Coach Harbaugh" and I certainly don't think anybody here would argue that he treats his players like inferior school children.
I mean, yeah sure. I find some of the responses here weird given an innocent question. I didn't say it was bad and I don't think it is. Oddly aggressive or the comment below that this isn't high brow enough for mgoblog lol.
Maybe because his assistant's first name is Howard (Eisley). It may get confusing.
But it should at least be Coach Juwan.
Why should it be anything? If both sides are fine with the setup then that's what it should be. There's clearly no disrespect there. And if it was perceived as such by him, I guarantee it wouldn't still be the way it is.
Maybe he told his players not to call him coach
Maybe they don't call him coach in public because they knew it was a slow day on the board and it would be brought up.
Next him you see the DAVID AND MEREDITH KAPLAN MEN'S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH out in public, ask him
Damn, I'm running out of things to put my name on. So far we have:
David and Meredith Kaplan Men's Basketball Head Coach ($7.5 million donation)
J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Football Coach ($10 million donation)
J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Women’s Basketball Coach ($3 million donation)
Any others?
I guess I could always have a bathroom. How much would it cost me to get The Blue@LSU Men's Loo
The Blue@LSU Men's Loo at the Crisler Center (like the coach K court at Cameron only classier)
When you have to go #2 use the Blue@LSU Loo
From MGoBlue
SANFORD ROBINSON CO-OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR / QUARTERBACKS
MATT WEISS
SANFORD ROBINSON CO-OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR/DONALD C. GRAHAM FOOTBALL OFFENSIVE LINE COACH
SHERRONE MOORE
LESTER FAMILY DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR
JESSE MINTER
When you have to go #2 use the Blue@LSU Loo
That's got a nice ring to it. Do I owe you any royalties if I use it?
Nope,all I ask is that I don’t have to wait in line to use it
Deal!
Blue, aim higher! ‘The blue@lsu soft pretzel and drink stand’.
im hoping to pin down the ‘XM ticket taker podium, brought to you by scanner blue’. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
That's a good idea, but I've put a lot of thought into this. If I fund for a well-endowed bathroom, I could also negotiate my own personal luxury stall. That could come in real handy. No lines. No sitting where someone else has just done their business. Real toilet paper. Maybe even a reclining crapper...
You're onto something with the ‘XM ticket taker podium, brought to you by scanner blue’. You could keep the riffraff and buckeyes out of the stadium.
We could even work out a quid pro quo. You get me express entry into the stadium. I'll give you access to my personal stall. Deal?
You two guys have definitely gone waaaay over the top here, 🤣. Love it!
(But you both definitely need to work to find a better sequence to the Blaha and Beilein go into a bar joke, that was a perfect opening...).
Yeah, I dropped the ball on that one. You fed it to us on a spoon but I've never been a closer.
Coffee is for closers, so I'm stuck drinking tea.
better idea: stick with funding your magic bathroom, and defund all the others. you will then make your millions back by halftime of the first home game.
This is a question that has interested me for some time, too. Here's a diary post I wrote on it in December 2020 that posited some reasons I think it happens. There was some excellent feedback from the comments section too, if you've got a chance to check it out.
Here's the meat of the post:
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Coach Howard played here, and his career has been familiar to the public, the media and Michigan fans for 30 years. This is similar to Coach Harbaugh, who has been referred to as “Jim” in some pressers. Contrast this with Don Brown, who was almost never called by his first name.
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As many of us Black people do, he has an uncommon first name coupled with a common last name. Coach Beilein had just the opposite. It’s natural to attach to the most unique aspect of anyone. That’s why we know about Coach Howard’s grandmother and his hardscrabble upbringing.
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I try not to jump to conclusions, but I’m always sensitive to potential subtle slights to Black people in leadership positions. I’m a physician by training, and when I was in practice, it was annoying if a patient called me by my first name in that context. Using a first name in an overfamiliar way can push some buttons on long-held insecurities. Particularly as a young doc, I was always on the lookout for someone who might undermine my fragile sense of authority.
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Related to #3, I am also sensitive to the idea that Coach Howard is not an Xs and Os Coach, and the idea that he is “just letting his players play.” His sets are often a thing of beauty, and he generates a ton of open looks off horns, double drags, and other action. He was always the most fundamentally sound of the Fab 5, and the least bouncy; those traits often make for good coaches.
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Finally, he has an appealing, attentive, avuncular, authentic relational style that makes him feel knowable, and he has created a family atmosphere around the team. Beilein’s public persona was more pedantic.
That was a good post, thanks! What did you post that got you to your unfortunate total?
In November, during the Coaches vs. Racism event (which coincided with my personal sobriety anniversary from addiction), I posted a diary about how racism behaves like addiction. However, I'm writing a book on that subject, and I included a link to my literary agent's website on the post. That's tantamount to advertising and implies a tacit approval from mgoblog. I should have known better than that, and I sent Seth an apology.
Compounding that error was my personal history (easily found publicly, and more easily found since the link included my full name) of having had a romantic relationship with one of my patients back when I was in active addiction in 2012. That's a major ethical violation of medical ethics. I've been open about that history for several years now, including here. Hoping to get the points back at some future time, but I still love the content and community here, and actively participate. Thanks for asking.
I would only disagree with your description of beilein. Not pedantic. More like your favorite chemistry prof who was a super good dude despite being an egg head.
You're right, XM. "Pedantic" was the wrong choice of words. I was looking for something less pejorative than that. "Professorial" would have been a better choice.
and i remember your post about the name issue. you mention you are a physician, or in training, and i think that professional status makes it inappropriate for someone to call you by your first name unless they were friend or family, and of an age in relation to yours that is close or older. i have raised an eyebrow from time to time when someone fairly unknown to me uses my first name, but the context is extremely important - were we in an office or on a beach, things like that. as to juwan, that is how he has always been known, it is his trademark in a sense, like 'michael' or 'magic' or many others who've chosen that type of simple indentifier as their public moniker.
I can see where you're coming from, but I also think the athletic culture at Michigan seems to lend itself to a certain informality, that doesn't necessarily have to do with the coach's background or ethnicity.
Other fanbases will routinely speak of "Coach [name]" (and even use "C" as part of their initials) but that's not really our thing. We seem to find that to be over the top.
Over the years we've had coaches go by Bennie, Bump, Fritz, Bo, Red, Mo, Fish, Hutch ... if anything, it seems like getting called by your first name or nickname is a sign that you've been accepted into the club.
For Beilein that was a little problematic though, as the name John is so common as to not be clearly identifiable as him.
Jmblue I think that’s true in the fanbase, but historically that has been less true with media and players. I have a hard time imagining anyone giving an interview where they called Coach Schembechler “Bo” or seeing him referred to that way at a press conference.
Whether this is related to ethnicity is still a bit of an open question to me. As counterpoints, though, coaches Ellerbe and Amaker were never known by their first names. That might be a function of my aforementioned point number two, though.
Moritz Wagner was Mo. Zak Novak was Novak. Ignas Brazdeikis was Iggy. Nik Stauskas was Stauskas. Stu Douglass was Stu. Jon Teske was Teske. Spike Albrecht was Spike. I've seen Hunter get called both pretty evenly. Same with Duncan. I guess I use first names for both of them.
I'm honestly not trying to be insensitive, but there seems to be quite a easy explanation for what people call sports figures by. You've brought this up so many times, yet don't seem willing to address some of the points that generally get brought up in response. Not to mention this post is straight up about the players calling Juwan Howard 'Juwan.' Are you suggesting the players are racist? Or that only Dickinson is being problematic despite saying the same thing as the others? It seems pretty clear based on the names above that the most unique name regardless of the race of the player tends to get used in conversation about them. And Juwan Howard will always have been a player. But it absolutely extends to coaches. Previous black coaches Amaker and Ellerbe were, well, Amaker and Ellerbe. Because Tommy and Brian aren't exactly unique. We call Fran McCaffery "Fran" the majority of the time from what I see. Because Fran is what Tommy and Brian aren't. Unique. Mike Woodson gets called "Woodson." Of course we call the vast majority of Big Ten coaches by their last name. Look at their first names! Apart from the ones already mentioned, we have Brad, Greg, Matt, Chris, Steve, Tom, Mark (until this year), Chris, Micah (Pat previously), Ben, and Fred. Like the most generic ass set of names you can come up with. Howard is not only less unique than Juwan, we have another coach with the name as a first name (who, yes, gets called Eisley generally). Why would the racism only factor in with Juwan and not our previous black coaches? Probably because there is another explanation. And I'll add on that as a UNC alum, we called Roy Williams "Roy." Now Hubert Davis is "Coach Davis." Why? I have no idea, it literally just flows better. It's as simple as that sometimes. There is just so much more evidence that it's not a race thing than there is that it is.
I know it's a sensitive topic and can't identify with it personally, but in just looking at the examples above... In this specific case I strongly disagree that anything beyond name uniqueness is causing people to call players and coaches what they do. I can tell you feel strongly about it because you've discussed it at length here and on other forums. But I sincerely don't think you give enough credence to the occam's razor explanation or the various counterexamples above.
And I'm certainly not blowing your entire comment off. We see blatant racism with other fan bases inexplicably trashing his coaching ability and X's and O's, as you mentioned. This despite never having an offense outside of the top 25 on kenpom, a mark Beilein actually missed 3 of his final 5 years.
Wolverheel, if you’re referring to me, I included “name uniqueness” in point #2 above.
Yes. As one of five reasons. And you specifically indicated that it is African American name uniqueness. I'm saying that using first vs. last name based on having unique names is very much not something exclusive to any race and that this name uniqueness is why Juwan is Juwan, not the racism angle. And again, OP was specifically discussing the players rather than fans, which you seem to be referring to. This makes your post even more of a stretch to me as the players also calling him this would pretty clearly indicate that no, it is not subtle racism by the fan base that has people calling him Juwan. It is that this is what people called him when he was here. This is just what he was known by as a huge name for decades in the basketball world. Because fans call players by their more unique names. This is why I posted the list of white players who we used different names for based on said uniqueness. Iggy, Stu, Spike, Mo.
Again, since you didn't address it, I seriously urge you to consider Amaker and Ellerbe practically exclusively being called by their last names. Like I said, Occam's Razor.
Thanks. Didn't think about him being a Michigan fixture but that makes sense. As does the rest of it.
JUWAN (TM)