Michigan Basketball: 3 things we learned in loss to Rutgers

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports /
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Michigan was once again beaten, this by a team who had never beaten Michigan basketball before, dating back all the way to the 1930s the Rutgers were 0-19 against the Wolverines until Tuesday night, beating Michigan 75-67 in convincing fashion. 

I have to be honest, this is the first time in probably a decade I have not been excited to watch Michigan Basketball. For two straight games, I have packed up early and called it a night because of how abysmal the team is playing.

There are a lot of questions being floated around about Juwan Howard’s capability to coach a winning Basketball team. Personally, I think the “Fire Juwan” train is way too early to the station. Juwan’s proven he can recruit talent, he’s proven that he can coach a winning team—so what happened this season?

Well, to keep it bleak this team came in with high expectations and potentially winning it all. Michigan and Juwan Howard were humbled to start the season than humbled a few more times against UNC, UCF, Minnesota, and Rutgers.

Take last year, for example, they were a forgotten team in a stacked Big Ten, then all of a sudden they’re Big Ten Champions and a #1 seed in March. So is it that Michigan does better when expectations are low rather than when expectations are high?

Juwan Howard is for sure not the guy we thought he’d be this season

Juwan’s not an X’s and O’s coach, and we knew that going into his tenure, but this is just downright pathetic at this point. Juwan has so much talent on a roster that most teams would dream of, and yet he’s sitting barely above .500 on the season and opened Big Ten play 1-2.

The last time Michigan basketball lost back-to-back games in a season was actually in Juwan’s first season in 2019. After starting off flaming hot beating #6 UNC and #8 Gonzaga, Michigan spiraled downhill before COVID-19 and lost back-to-back games twice and in addition for safe measure added a four-game losing streak.

While that’s irrelevant now, I think it was an early indicator that he may not be the coach hyped up to be. After an amazing sophomore coaching season, he’s following it up with one of the worst Michigan records in a long time, which is funny because this is arguably the most talented team in a long time.

If I were Juwan, I’d consider hiring an assistant to help out schematically with the X’s and O’s because he clearly is not capable of doing so. The fundamentals, something Beilein preached seem to be lacking with this team which is clearly not a recipe for success.

At the end of the day, everyone has their own opinion on what Juwan should do, but he’s the one that’s going to do what he thinks is best.

Let’s just hope U-M can salvage this season and make an NIT bid because we’re long past the “this is the rebound game” and clearly just not as good as presumed to be.