Separating fact from fiction with Juwan Howard
There have been reports of an altercation between Michigan basketball coaches including head coach Juwan Howard. Here’s what we know.
For about 45 minutes on Sunday night, Michigan basketball fans got to enjoy the Wolverines’ much-needed road win over Iowa.
Shortly after that, reports started coming out about an altercation between head coach Juwan Howard and an assistant coach on the staff, Jon Sanderson, the strength coach.
There were even some rumors that Juwan Howard was going to get fired — a fake poster on X went as far as to say Juwan had resigned but was staying on as an assistant, which is false.
It just shows how crazy things got within a matter of hours. According to Brendan Quinn of The Athletic, there was a “confrontation” between Juwan Howard and Sanderson during a practice last week. Quinn writes that Howard’s status hasn’t changed with the Unversity, but Quinn noted he expected Manuel and Howard to meet this week and that, “disciplinary measures for those involved could occur.”
Regarding various reports of Juwan Howard’s status at Michigan .... pic.twitter.com/ZeiuZDKgMU
— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) December 11, 2023
It should also be noted that Howard coached in the Michigan basketball win over Iowa on Sunday. Sanderson did not make the trip with the team.
Of course, this isn’t a great look for Juwan Howard, who has already been suspended during his Michigan basketball coaching career for hitting a Wisconsin coach after a loss to the Badgers during the 2021-22 season.
Howard has also received numerous ejections in his career with the Wolverines, including one this season as an assistant coach. He also got into a heated argument with former Maryland coach Mark Turgeon as part of another ejection.
Josh Henschke of Rivals has also confirmed that there was an “altercation” but that it did not get physical.
M&BR can confirm through multiple sources that a physical altercation between Juwan Howard and an assistant DID NOT happen on Friday.
— Josh Henschke (@JoshHenschke) December 11, 2023
We CAN confirm that a verbal altercation took place that DID NOT get physical.
More on what we're hearing here: https://t.co/HbWm0cElTC
That’s what we know about the Juwan Howard situation right now. He is still the head coach of the Michigan basketball team.
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It’s possible that changes in the coming days. We really don’t know, but at this point, there haven’t been any staff changes and any report of Juwan Howard throwing a punch is inaccurate.