Michigan Basketball: 6 potential coaching candidates to replace Juwan Howard

With the offseason getting worse and worse by the day blame is flowing through the Michigan basketball program like the days prior to John Beilein.

The likelihood of Michigan basketball head coach Juwan Howard getting fired is highly unlikely, at least until after next season.

The chances of him leaving to rejoin the NBA are more likely, but who would want to pry him away from his alma mater following a miserable, NCAA tournament-less season and constant misses on impact transfers, that are not all his fault?

Here’s a brief list of coaches that could take his Michigan basketball job in the not-so-distant future.

1. Nate Oats

The Alabama leader would be a grand slam hire. He led Buffalo to an NCAA tournament win over Arizona in 2018 and went 28-3 the next season. He moved on to Alabama and won SEC Coach of the Year in 2021. He took his team to number one in the nation and also recruited one of the highest-rated prospects in recent memory, Brandon Miller, who will probably go second in the 2023 draft.

2. Brian Dutcher

“Dutch” has waited patiently for his time to be called the man and it finally happened in 2023. He just took his group to the national championship game as a 5 seed and is from Michigan. The fact that he took a nonpower-five school to the pinnacle of college basketball is unheard of. Steve Fisher didn’t do that at SDSU, but we all know what he did at Michigan basketball with “Dutch as his assistant.” He may be the favorite when and if the time comes.