Michigan Basketball: 5 things to expect in Juwan Howard’s 2nd season
By Nick Popio
The Championships Will Come
Seven contests in and Howard had already earned his first trophy to put on the mantle as coach. Winning the Battle 4 Atlantis catapulted him into the national spotlight where everyone in the basketball world noticed. Michigan immediately jumped from unranked to the top five in an instant and expectations changed in a heartbeat.
He says he had some doubts when Juwan Howard first offered him, considering Howard was a first time head coach. The Battle 4 Atlantis showed Williams that Howard was “built for this”
— Orion Sang (@orion_sang) March 8, 2020
With the season cut short, we’ll all wonder what would have played out in one of the most highly anticipated conference tournaments in recent history.
There didn’t seem to be a clear-cut favorite and some analysts even predicted that Michigan basketball could have won the whole thing again as a nine seed. That would have added the icing on the cake of his vastly growing legacy.
Next season is rounding into shape pretty seamlessly. Michigan should be considered a Big Ten title contender with a cornucopia of talent that will be compared to Beilein’s top teams. That’s a tip of the cap to see just how hard Howard has worked in under 365 days. With his reputation firmly in place, all of the maize and blue faithful may not have to wait much longer to add another trophy to the case.