Unverified Voracity Makes Some Slick Comments
The Howard Interview. Juwan Howard sat down with Brendan Quinn for what Quinn says is his first one on one interview in two years. That, in and of itself, is part of the issue. This section is kind of like… well… I mean…?
In the end, Howard says he wishes he’d opened up more. He wishes people knew junior forward Will Tschetter keeps a garden in his backyard, where he and Jenine grow jalapeño, kale, bell peppers, lettuce. He wishes he’d been more open about his feelings on going from one-game shy of the Elite Eight in March 2021 to outcast in March 2022. He wishes he hadn’t been so reticent about his heart surgery. He wishes people knew that, during the interview, former captain Eli Brooks called to check in on him.
He says he wishes he let people get to know him.
One of the issues with hiring a first-time head coach is that sometimes they don't know the shape of the job. They've seen it, they've been around it, but being it for the first time is something different. Especially when you come from a Miami Heat organization where all that stuff is minimized because you have a long-term, secure coach in a well-run organization. Beating the bushes is not a thing that Howard ever had to do.
The other main takeaway from the interview is that Howard should not have coached this year:
Doctors set his recovery time at 6-12 weeks. He spent 15 days in the hospital post-op.
Howard told assistant coach Howard Eisley, a lifelong friend, that he would return in two weeks. He saw doctors’ recommendations as races to win, not timelines to live by. And he suffered for it.
“I thought I was a Marvel hero, but this was real life stuff I was dealing with, and I was extremely naive,” he says. “I was impatient with the process.”
Howard wasn’t fully recovered when he returned to the Michigan bench for a November trip to the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, he says. Multiple complications emerged throughout the season. He rarely slept through the night. Doctors advised him to step away and undergo another surgery to address an atrial flutter that sapped his energy and caused severe discomfort. He was scheduled to undergo a 7 a.m. procedure following a Jan. 23 road game at Purdue, but heavy snow grounded Michigan’s return flight. Howard’s surgery was canceled and he declined to reschedule it in-season, against doctors’ recommendations and to Jenine’s displeasure.
The surgery is scheduled for April 19.
There is a timeline where Howard does not get Terrence Shannon and Caleb Love spiked into the earth by admissions (and Shannon, uh, settles down with a nice poli sci major in Ann Arbor); a timeline where he does not have health issues. He likely still has his job, and Michigan might have been really good through year five. That is not this timeline, but it is so close that it hurts. Howard's issues were only half of his own making.
[After THE JUMP: basketball roster stuff, hockey items]
Basketball roster stuff, but smaller. The rumored hire of Akeem Miskdeen went from rumored to reported; he has not been officially announced due to Michigan's longstanding Have You Ever Been A Vacuum Refurbisher extreme background check policy, but it's just a matter of time. He's in.
Will Tschetter is in.
Terrance Williams hit the portal. (Folks: you do not have to acknowledge that everyone is technically also entering a draft they have a 0% chance to get picked in.) I was never as down on Williams as the burn-it-all-down wing of the fanbase was, but… I mean… it's fine. Good luck to him wherever he lands. Here is where I will speculate that this opens up the Eric Dailey slot.
FAU transfer Nick Boyd released a long list that did not have Michigan on it. I'm a little surprised at that; you'd think that if Michigan threw its hat in the ring they'd at least make the long list, and Boyd is a career 37% shooter from deep who had a couple of solid years as an ~average usage 20 MPG player for May. I'm slightly more surprised because the list has Texas and Louisville and a bunch of other high-majors on it. I know I said that it was less clear he was a high-major uptransfer, but I'm just a guy. If a fair swathe of the P5 is after the guy and Michigan isn't, I will register surprise. May aiming higher?
Speaking of Louisville: there was a brief surge of optimism from Card fans about landing Johnell Davis after On3's Pete Nakos posted that "Louisville isn't going down without a fight" as they attempt to fix their broken program by dumping NIL money on one-and-done players. (Did that work the last time?)
One catch: FAU played Charleston this year and it appears that FAU players loathe Pat Kelsey, the former Charleston and current Louisville coach. Owl Brandon Weatherspoon:
Made them slick comments about me early in the year but now you trying to recruit my teammates we gone see how far you get with it #GOODLUCK
— Brandon Weatherspoon (@__bloading__) April 4, 2024
Davis liked this tweet.
The issue was due to some dust-ups during the game itself, one of which set off Kelsey. A Louisville fan found the incident; unfortunately he decided that narrating some brain-dead takes over the incident was better than just letting it stand as is:
I’d like to point out that May and Kelsey seem to have squashed it all at mid court, at least on the surface. But Weatherspoon still in his feelings about something he clearly initiated is soft as hell. Also, the unwritten rule is there’s no need to smack talk a coach ya goober. pic.twitter.com/HuoflMFhDH
— ⚜️Alan Thomas⚜️ (@CardN_AL) April 4, 2024
These things were compounded when Kelsey—supposedly the adult in this situation—took to Twitter some time later to re-hash the whole thing, implying that the issue Weatherspoon had was that he was on the court. All basketball coaches who wander onto the court during play should be dragon-punched out of the arena, so we are team Weatherspoon all the way.
One thing this incident makes clear is that both programs got coaches that fit them.
Man I hope PK wins here.
— BaxleyRJR (@BaxleyRJR) April 4, 2024
Easy to root for somebody as insane about bball as the fans. https://t.co/N2uxTnCkJj
Anyway: Davis probably isn't going to Louisville. This feels like Nakos getting some dubious intel from the UL side of things, because the worst case scenario for them is message board guys saying stuff like "he was always going to Michigan but this shows we're serious." The tweet escapade rather blew up in his face.
Rising. JJ McCarthy goes fourth in Bruce Feldman's latest mock draft:
“I think too many people are getting caught up trying to look at box scores instead of watching film. He makes a lot of plays for them after the play breaks down. There’s some ‘wow’ stuff in there. He’s on a dead sprint, and he makes some perfect throws. When he has to get out and make a play, he can really do it.”
“We thought he throws a little bit of a flat ball and you wouldn’t see much of him layering it in there. But he’s really dynamic. You wanted to keep him in the pocket but he’d still get out whenever they needed him to, and he’s great throwing on the run. He could get out to his left or his right and get you, but especially going to his right.”
No other Michigan players in the first round.
Praise Tiny Jesus. Seamus Casey will be available for the Frozen Four:
Brandon Naurato on the likelihood that standout defenseman Seamus Casey will play for Michigan in the Frozen Four: “100 percent.” pic.twitter.com/vEWYTt6KRD
— Clayton Sayfie (@CSayf23) April 3, 2024
Michigan needs all hands on deck against BC.
I'll believe it when I see it. This has never happened:
Pat Micheletti said on a podcast Saturday morning that he thought snuggy would be back. He also said that he'd heard basically every Michigan player that isn't graduating is expected to return next season. If that holds up the B1G is going to be straight fire next year
— A-P (@adampieski) April 2, 2024
Micheletti is a Minnnesota radio guy who is a Gopher legend, for context. My reaction to this is always "I don't believe you," but Michigan has a couple of reasons to hope. One is that the New Jersey Devils have a loaded blueline and aren't projected to need anyone in the league next year; another is that Gavin Brindley won't turn 20 until October and is the kind of undersized forward that NHL teams sometimes leave be.
If, hypothetically, Michigan does get their top line back (or even two of the three) they will be unfathomably loaded at forward next year. The only forward without eligibility next year is Chase Pletzke. They have the top two scorers in the USHL committed—and these are draft-year guys, not overagers. They also have NTDP F Christian Humphreys, who's likely to be a second or third rounder, coming in. They'd have to put off a couple of guys who look likely to be quality college players.
It's not happening! Why did I even write this?
Speaking of. USHL scorer #2 is Chicago Steel center Michael Hage, who had an unbelievably rough year:
In Hage’s first practice with the Steel a year and a half ago, he blew out his shoulder — which had bothered him throughout the previous summer — and had to undergo surgery.
The surgery cost him his first year of junior hockey in the USHL as a 16-year-old. He left the team briefly that fall to begin his rehab at home with his family, but made the decision to return after Christmas and worked for months to get back before the end of the year.
Last April, then-assistant general manager Noelle Needham said she believed that had he not gotten hurt, he would have been right behind Macklin Celebrini at the top of the 2024 class entering his draft year.
“And he’ll get back there,” she insisted. “He’ll be fine. He’s going to be the real deal. But just given what he has also sacrificed, I mean he could have stayed at home but he (was) in Chicago the whole time skating, conditioning, lifting, watching film, traveling with the team, watching in the stands.”
Eventually, he returned, playing in the Steel’s final 13 games of the season and registering 10 points.
A couple of months later, over that weekend last July, he lost his dad.
Hage's father died in a swimming pool accident; Hage had to go through rehab with a heavy weight. Will be an easy guy to root for.
Etc.: NIL has blown up the shoe company monopoly on paying basketball players. Two WBB commits starred in the McDAA game. Law-talkin' about NCAA NIL lawsuits. OSU player enters NBA draft while retaining "eliginility." Stupid typo… or BRILLIANT TYPO? TV ratings should prevent Greg Sankey from obliterating the tournament. New kickoffs en route? How Davis ended up at FAU.
We don't, but it would make a lot of sense why he isn't considering us if that's the case. There's no chance that a player who's been in school four years, but isn't a grad transfer, would be both admitted and eligible* as a transfer here.
*The eligibility thing is the real killer. As I understand it, the NCAA has progress requirements to remain eligible for athletics, i.e. you have to have completed 40% of your degree after your second year, 60% after your third, and 80% after your fourth. Even if he was admitted here, he could only get a max of ~50% of his credits to transfer given that M requires you to complete so many credits at M in order to get an M degree (not that all would anyway--you just know many, if not most, FAU credits wouldn't transfer given our transfer policy). So at best he'd be at 50% when he needed to be at 80% (or 60% if he had been in school for three years), which is why it's impossible to get a non-grad transfer that's been in school more than two years.
I get why the NCAA has these rules in principle--it is important that guys stay in track to graduate--but they really should make a change given the reality of transfers today, such as allowing eligibility if you met the requirement at your old school...
Could be that May is prioritizing his FAU recruits and didn't think there would be room. Or they are looking at OkSt or Georgia guys instead.
Boyd is from FAU, so if he was prioritizing FAU guys, then Boyd would be one of those guys. Unless, of course, the issue is as Erik suggests, that he would be an upperclassmen undergrad transfer.
I said prioritizing his 3 FAU recruits who all decommitted this week. Like he'd rather have the younger developmental guys for 4 years vs bringing in a bunch of 1 year rentals.
I can confirm that Rutger is 100% coming back for another year.
This is Verified Veracity.
Doctors set his recovery time at 6-12 weeks. He spent 15 days in the hospital post-op.
Howard told assistant coach Howard Eisley, a lifelong friend, that he would return in two weeks.
I realize this is common as dirt, but this shit grinds my gears. Half of this is elite athletes being hard-wired to think everything is a challenge, I get that, but half of this is typical American anti-intellectualism normalizing the casual dismissal of subject matter experts.
Juwan, this is more problematic than you going "oops" and paying the price. You're a longtime pro in a basketball arena, but you're the know-nothing here. The idiot. The dumbest person in the room. Now, there's nothing wrong with that if you know your place. But you don't know shit about cardiology, so you have to listen. I can't imagine he'd take it well if I -- an old, out-of-shape desk potato -- loudly said "WTF do you know about basketball" to his face with all the confidence of a Dunning-Kruger case study, but that's basically what he did here. He completely disregarded an expert in their own area of expertise, but he expects his kids to listen? The Sanderson incident suddenly makes a lot more sense.
I know, it's easy to pick on Juwan when like half the country does it, and everyone's now going, "Yo, DC, what's the big deal? Everyone does that," but that's a hypocritical thought if you've ever felt frustration over not being listened to at work. It's a dangerously broken form of normal, but it's just so common these days that we don't react to it anymore.
Do you know what the person who graduated dead last in their medical school class is called? Have you ever been an athlete or coach at any level? Are you a cardiologist? Are you competitive at all and take challenges head on? Are lizard people real? Have you ever suffered a serious injury or underwent surgery while having insane amounts of pressure and your job depending on your perceived long term availability and success (Juwan said it)? Is there really an end to a rainbow and if so what does it taste like?
Your drivel is simultaneously non-sensical and yet so insightful. Are you a young person? Help me to understand your ways!
If you are high-school wrestling coach, I am worried that you are not imparting the proper knowledge to the students under you. The "life" of someone vastly exceeds their potential/actual "athlete" life. Please encourage behavior that is not detrimental to their "life".
I wish someone, anyone, would have stepped in and told Juwan that he wasn't going to coach this past year. His wife, his kids, his doctors, his assistants, and his boss all have to be looking back in regret at allowing this decision to be made. There's a lesson here for all of us on the necessity to speak up in certain situations, and not cave to the wishes of the dominant personality.
The message may or may not have needed to be delivered to Juwan in a kinder, gentler tone than dragonchild--but it absolutely should have been. Speaking of out of shape desk potatoes, where was Warde? [Edit: /s]
Not saying he was right to coach, but whether it worked or not is results based, and frankly the season was doomed due to roster construction. A fully healthy Juwan, IMO, gets very similar results.
They probably all did. I've been in similar situations. You can love someone doing something crazy and suggest nicely, then ask, then plead, then scream in desperation, but some people think they know it all and just won't listen to advice, all the way to the grave. Even consulted a lawyer at one point to get a family member help but was told, "The law doesn't protect people from making bad decisions."
As for Warde, I hate the guy but I do have to acknowledge he did reach out to an expert in Beilein, and as a result we landed May. That's a rare level of introspection these days.
As a fellow middle age male… this worldview is mine as well. To me this is the greatest threat/problem in society. People pushing and so many believing lies and bullshit they find on the Internet and making poor choices even after they insist they “did my own research”.
People showing me a TikTok that brazenly “proved” the security tags on Victoria’s Secret bras were actually homing devices used by sex traffickers and asking why I didn’t lead my organization to do more about it was the straw for me. WTF people, where did critical thinking go?!?
sorry. But I needed to shake my fist at a couple clouds today. This was the perfect opportunity.
i was wondering how long it would be until “juwan came back before he should’ve” somehow became warde manuel’s fault. so thanks for that.
EDIT - fair enough, friend. my sarcasm meter sometimes goes on the blink based on <waves arms at the universe>
Apologies. My sarcasm was lost (it happens a lot in my house). In the final analysis we are all responsible for our decisions and need to own them.
The other bit that I caught in the Howard interview was that he was surprised by the exit of Moussa and Houstan, that it was never his idea to build teams--a la Calipari--around one and dones.
You know, your hot-shooting son is playing matador on defense all season and getting first-round offers--Juwan may have been scratching his head, too. Of course he had to go. Maybe, just maybe, NIL can turn the NBA into something less than a suck-dirt-from-all-crevices black hole?
EDIT: Yeah, I thought Dylan was piling on a little there myself.
I think it's really about the G-League. Diabate and Jett are basically G-League players.
So it's about choosing where to develop, and getting paid while doing so. But two things in G-League's favor are that you can play against other professionals there, and you can sign two-way contracts that get you onto NBA rosters. NIL can't merely match G-League offers dollar for dollar and compel players with NBA interest to stick around.
And maybe most importantly for many you don't have to pretend to be a student studying something you care little about...
You just get a job doing something youve been doing for much of your life and get on with it..
It would have been great if everything had worked as well as we all hoped for Juwan Howard. I just hope he is able to recover, be healthy, and get a head coaching job that will help him grow and prosper. To me, he will always be the most fab of the Fab 5.
eligiNILity is indeed a brilliant typo
well done whomever
Last year we had a Hobey winner and NHL forward leading the team, and the year before they had 5 first round picks including 4 of the top 5. Next year's team looks loaded too if they all stay as indicated, plus the additions.
So, since hockey gods play jokes to amuse themselves, this odd team in between is the one that's gonna break through and win the Frozen Four. That's how it works.
I'm sorta surprised that there hasn't been mention here or on the board of College Sports Tomorrow...but seeing as it's as unlikely to happen as any other message board idea (albeit slightly better funded and connected), maybe I shouldn't be
No other Michigan players in the first round.
BUT TWELVE PLAYERS WHO LOST TO MICHIGAN ARE
"NIL has blown up the shoe company monopoly on paying basketball players."
In other words, Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky (and some others, sure) can now focus on other sources of money.
Howard's issues were only half of his own making.
Amen to that!
Seamus Casey is 100% going to play. But will he be 100%...?
I like hearing about all the puck skill Naurato is recruiting. Would like to be also hearing about a top shelf goalie. Maybe it's back to the portal again for that.
EligiNILity needs to be added to Websters.
Yeah, getting a goalie is key. Which makes losing Augustine hurt so much (although he was merely good, not great, against us; we put up four, five and seven goals in three of the six games against them)...
NHL teams can't consistently scout, draft and develop goalies. There's no way a college coaching staff can. Getting good goalies is basically a crapshoot it seems, even more than everything else in recruiting. I think either take as many as possible and hope one is a lottery ticket winner, or just count on getting what you can from the portal.
If a short kid named Don Shunwick showed up in pads, I'd take him.
I just realized when viewing Will Tschetter's Instagram story that Will Tschetter (Will T) and Terrence Williams (T Will) have opposite names! (mind blown)
That Charleston coach is one angry little leprechaun
All basketball coaches who wander onto the court during play should be dragon-punched out of the arena, so we are team Weatherspoon all the way.
This is a particular pet peeve of mine. If I were a ref, I'd warn both coaches before the game and the minute either one steps onto the court during live action, boom, instant tech. And if they bitch about it, second tech, bye, see ya.
We might not see more than five minutes of Tom Izzo or Shaka Smart ever again.
Which is probably why we aren’t refs.
Everyone whines about officiating but if I ever called a game I would take no shit from either team and the result would be riots in the streets.
I would just keep running plays that intentionally target running into the coach. It forces the issue.
From what I've heard, the "Big 3" at FAU are leaning Michigan (Davis, Martin, and Vlad). The others have not been prioritized.
I have it on good authority that Martin is visiting next week, maybe as early as Monday. That said, he might take one other visit. Miami will push for all 3 and they have the NIL to pull it off, they're a dark horse, but in the end...I think May wins out.
I figured that JH maybe ignoring the medical advice to return to the sidelines. I respect him. Yet, at the same time, this particular action of ignoring the doctors tells me that he wasn't ready for this job.
I know it's a mark of strength to play through pain/injuries, etc. But after a while, such bullheaded behavior hurts the team a lot more than the little upside it had.
JH should have listened to the doctors and stayed away from the court for the 23-24 season.
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