The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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46 THE WOLVERINE FEBRUARY 2022 MICHIGAN BASKETBALL "I feel like it's more [about] consis- tency, just like with anything," Nunez said. "I approach everything I do pretty much the same way, whether that's basketball, school or the social media world. Just showing up every day is 80 percent of the battle. "So with basketball, I've been doing the same routine every day, either be- fore or after practice since I got here. With school, I always have my allot- ted times for me to do things and I just added another slot with social media." NIL pays dividends for the star ath- letes across the country, but has also opened the door for students without as much playing time to profit from their brands. Nobody will mistake Nunez for an NBA Draft prospect, but his brand off the court is something he can draw financial compensation from. "It's been huge," Nunez said of the NIL policy. "It's made it sustainable for me. You can only do something for free for so long before it becomes monoto- nous, I feel like NIL is everything right now. It's why I'm still doing it, why I started. Seeing the way that world oper- ates and seeing the whole business side of it and the behind the scenes of that has been eye-opening as well." Nunez is averaging 1.3 points per game in six contests played so far in 2021-22. Despite his lesser role in the rotation, he still seeks to be a leader with the program. "I'm just accepting any role that I have, anything that I can help the team with," Nunez said. "As a senior, helping a lot of the younger guys with new drills that [head coach] Juwan [Howard] will put in place and certain plays that have been put in since I was a sophomore. So just doing anything I can to help the team." Nunez was a three-star prospect and the No. 205 player in the 2018 class, the program's last recruiting cycle under John Beilein. — Anthony Broome JACE HOWARD IS TAKING ADVANTAGE OF HIS CHANCES Michigan sophomore guard Jace Howard appeared in 11 games during his freshman season in 2020-21, and saw action in six of U-M's first 15 con- tests this year. He had largely appeared in "garbage time" before, but is now competing during important sequences, with 24 of his 77 career minutes coming in the 75-67 loss at Rutgers Jan. 4 and the 68-53 setback at Illinois Jan. 14, in- cluding 15 minutes in the latter outing. His playing time is coming in part be- cause the Wolverines have been short- handed due to COVID-19 protocols and other medical reasons, but he's taken advantage of it. When Howard was a signee in early 2020, his high school coach at Fort Lau- derdale (Fla.) University told The Wol- verine that he'd do the "little things" correctly and contribute in ways that don't always show up in the stat sheet. "People are looking for kids who want to do the hard things, talking about defending, diving on the floor, mak- ing winning basketball plays," he said. "That, for whatever reason, is deterio- rating in our game. It's very difficult to find kids willing to do those things." Howard is one of those who will, how- ever. In nine minutes at Rutgers, he made one layup through traffic in transition and posted a zero plus-minus rating, standing as the only Wolverine with- out a negative mark. With Michigan's frontcourt shorthanded at Illinois, the 6-7 guard was willing to play the center spot and go up against arguably the most dominant player in college basketball, Illini junior center Kofi Cockburn. He frustrated Cockburn defensively, even blocked one of his shots and came up with two offensive rebounds. "Jace has proven to the coach and his teammates that you can depend on him," his father, head coach Juwan Howard, said postgame. At plus-10, Howard was the only Michigan player to notch a positive plus-minus rating in the 15-point loss. "You look at the box score and I'm like, 'Wow. Plus-minus, he's a 10.' His teammates, unfortunately, had a minus, minus, minus, minus, minus, minus and one is zero," Juwan Howard said. "Some people say, well, you expect a young man, because he's a coach's son — that's always been the cliché, a coach's son — to know how to play. But that's not always the case. "He has his own path, and he's always been a football, basketball kind of guy. But he's always showing that he's al- ways going to be the ultimate teammate and you can trust that whatever he's going to give you, he's going to give it to the team. And that has shown these last two games. "Now, I got to worry about his mom. Possibly she might say, 'Hey, you might need to play my son more!'" It's unclear what Howard's role will be when Michigan is back at full strength, but he's put himself in position to con- tinue receiving an opportunity to prove himself. — Clayton Sayfie OPPOSING COACHES WEIGH IN ON 2021-22 WOES The on-court struggles have been con- sistent for the Wolverines during an 8-7 start. It has been hard for anyone to pin down a single solution that could turn the program's fortunes around. ESPN.com's Jeff Borzello spoke to anonymous opposing college basket- ball coaches about why Juwan Howard's team has sputtered in his third season on the job. Howard logged nine minutes of action in a 75-67 loss to Rutgers Jan. 4 and was the only Wolverine without a negative plus/ minus rating. In the 68-53 loss at Illinois Jan. 14, he had to play out of position but finished at plus-10, the only Wolverine to finish on the positive side. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL