The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1194003
JANUARY 2020 THE WOLVERINE 35 ing a postgame, on-court interview that brushed aside doubt. "I'm from Chicago's south side," Howard said. "I've been through a lot. I've been through a lot of adver- sity. This is not new to me, man. Talk about pressure; yeah, I embrace pres- sure. I'm not going to run from it. "Basketball is something I've been doing all my life. Basketball is some- thing I've been doing since I was 6 years old. I love this game. I'm pas- sionate about it. Now I'm being able to serve and help these young kids, man. They're going to develop and become men. It's my calling. I'm very blessed. Thank you, God." The Wolverines didn't rest on their island achievement, either. They did absorb their first setback of the sea- son, getting punched in the nose be- fore 20,000 screaming Cardinal fans at then-No. 1 Louisville, 58-43. But they immediately shook that off to outrace Iowa in the Big Ten opener at Crisler Center, 103-91. They completed their early con- ference couplet with a 71-62 loss at Illinois, and then fell in overtime, 71- 70, against Oregon. All in all, it's the type of start al- most any Michi- gan fan would have accepted following John Beilein's sud- den departure last spring. Howard isn't making any big boasts. But he's also not backing down from any- thing, either. "At the end of the day, it's early," he said. "Championships are not won now. Yes, we won a champion- ship during Thanksgiving play, but the NCAA championship is in April. You can't get there yet. … We have many goals to try and go out there and achieve. It's just one that we ac- complished." HOWARD DRAWS PLAUDITS Howard's fellow coaches weighed in on Michigan's new coach, shar- ing their thoughts on the Wolverines' play. Iowa's Fran McCaffrey noted he witnessed in this year 's Wolverines all of the best elements of U-M un- der Beilein teams — moving the ball, sharing the ball, playing defense. "If you do those things, you typi- cally are going to be successful," Mc- Caffrey said. "Juwan's a smart guy. He's going to come in and insist that those guys do those same things. They've already been instilled by Coach Beilein." Other coaching big names also noted how well the Wolverines were performing early. North Carolina's Roy Williams acknowledged Michi- gan's prowess following his team's 73-64 loss to the eventual tournament champions. "Give them credit," Williams said. "Juwan has done a really nice job with that team. The most impressive thing to me is he's taken some of the guys that played for John Beilein, that were important to John, and they guarded like crazy, they shared the ball, they shot three-point shots. Juwan has embraced that and hasn't shied away from trying to be the man that [says], 'I can make every deci- sion.' "John Beilein's a really good coach, and I just commend Juwan for doing that and putting his own little part into it with more screens on the ball than they've ever set in the past, the toughness de- fensively. Last year, they were one of the best defensive teams in the country a n d t h e y ' v e c o n t i n u e d t o do it with [se- nior center] Jon Teske and those guys bothering every shot around the rim. The guards get after you and make it difficult for you to go where you want to go." One game later, Michigan took down Gonzaga for the champion- ship, 82-64. Their head coach, Mark Few, pointed out the opportunism of Howard's crew. "Every time we made a men- tal breakdown, they scored," Few said. "They literally made us pay on every one of our assignments that we screwed up — a switch or we screwed up a coverage, and they made us pay. So, they deserve a lot of credit for that." The Wolverines didn't do all that at Louisville. Instead, they shot 25.9 percent for the game, 15.8 percent on three-pointers and never fully recov- ered after falling behind 18-5. Their first true road test proved a bust, but Louisville head coach Chris Mack still gave credit to Howard for the Wolverines' strong start. Mack particularly hailed the move of How- ard hiring longtime St. Joseph's head coach Phil Martelli. That in itself demonstrated confi- dence, the Louisville coach stressed. "I just think the humility that he has to hire a guy like Phil Martelli … a lot of coaches wouldn't do that, feeling like they're getting second Juwan Howard's team knocked off a pair of top-10 foes by a combined total of 27 points en route to a championship at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament Nov. 27-29 in Paradise Island, Bahamas. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY Head coach Juwan Howard "At the end of the day, it's early. Championships are not won now. Yes, we won a champion- ship during Thanksgiving play, but the NCAA championship is in April. You can't get there yet."