The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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40 THE WOLVERINE ❱ APRIL 2024 Instead, things began to slide. Despite the return of veteran center Hunter Dick- inson, the Wolverines labored to a 19-15 regular-season record, going 11-9 for a finish tying for ninth in the Big Ten. They still slipped into the NCAA Tournament, and once there, nailed down a pair of wins to extend Michigan's streak of making Sweet 16's to five straight. The victories over Colorado State and Tennessee ap- plied some feel-good salve to the end of a season fraught with frustration. There wasn't any covering up last year's slide to 18-16, even with a decent 11-9 season and fifth-place tie in the Big Ten. Missing the NCAA Tournament un- derscored the decline, and a single vic- tory in the NIT didn't help matters. After it ended, the Wolverines lost freshman Jett Howard and sophomore Kobe Bufkin to the NBA Draft, along with Dickinson to Kansas. Adding insult to injury, Dickinson acknowledged making "less than six figures" in NIL money in his final season at Michigan. He became a million-dollar man at Kansas, enjoying a robust season for a Jayhawks team looking at a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. His former team crash-landed. They dropped five in a row prior to beating No. 11 Wisconsin at Crisler Center on Feb. 7, by a 72-68 score. The heartening vic- tory broke a troubling pattern of Howard's crew hanging tough for a half, then col- lapsing in the final 20 minutes. The win over Wisconsin provided fool's gold for those inclined to pan for it. Michigan then proceeded to lose its fi- nal nine games on the year, chalking up 14 losses in the last 15 contests. Those in- clined to make withering comparisons noted the national champion U-M foot- ball team has earned as many victories in 2024 thus far (two) as the bottoming-out men's basketball team. Complications arose far beyond How- ard's early absence. Sophomore guard Dug McDaniel found himself suspended from playing in away games for a large part of the season's back half, missing six road contests due to academic issues. Grad transfer forward Olivier Nkam- houa bowed out down the stretch, due to ongoing medical issues involving his wrist. Other issues arose as well, for a coach under a zero-tolerance edict for past anger-associated incidents. ISSUES OUTSIDE OF GAME PLAY Howard's temper put him in hot water on a number of occasions leading up to the bottom-of-the-barrel Big Ten finish in 2024. In the 2021 Big Ten Tournament, he got into a shouting match with then- Maryland coach Mark Turgeon. The Terps reportedly told the Big Ten that Howard, while being restrained by his own team, shouted "I'll ------- kill you" at Tur- geon. "This has been going on for three games," Turgeon noted afterward. "I've been doing this for 34 years, and I called the conference commissioner about what's transpired in the first two games. And I said I wasn't going to take it in the third game. And so, I stood up for my team, and stood up for myself." Officials ejected the Michigan coach from the 79-66 U-M win. Afterward, he gave his take. "Turgeon saw that I was out of the [coaching] box," Howard began. "He tells the referee to look at my feet, that I'm out of the box. I'm like, 'Come on, man, is this what we're doing today? You're worried about my feet being out of the box?' So he said to me, 'Juwan, I'm not going to let you talk to me. You don't talk to me ever again.' And he charged at me. "I don't know how you guys were raised, but I was raised by my grand- mother and also by Chicago. I grew up on HOWARD'S RECORD AT MICHIGAN Overall Big Ten Season Record Pct. Record Pct. Postseason 2019-20 19-12 .613 10-10 (9th) .500 Canceled - COVID 2020-21 23-5 .821 14-3 (1st) .824 NCAA Elite Eight 2021-22 19-15 .559 11-9 (T-7th) .550 NCAA Sweet 16 2022-23 18-16 .529 11-9 (T-5th) .550 NIT Second Round 2023-24* 3-19 .120 2-16 (14th) .111 — Total 82-67 .550 48-47 .505 * Michigan's record in 2023-24 was 8-24 overall and 3-17 in the Big Ten. Interim head coach Phil Mar- telli gets credit for a 5-5 (1-1 Big Ten) record while Howard was recuperating from open heart surgery at the beginning of the season. Howard, who led U-M to the Big Ten regular-season title in 2020-21, had self-inflicted angry inci- dents with a pair of opposing coaches in the past several seasons and, most recently, with a mem- ber of his own staff. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL