3 thoughts on Michigan basketball decision to fire Juwan Howard

Roster construction doomed Juwan

Juwan Howard can coach basketball. He got a lot of criticism when he said his "stuff" works but when he's got good players it did work. Just look at his first few seasons. Howard did a solid job when he has sufficient talent and he did a nice job of adjusting in the NCAA tournament.

Michigan was good on both ends of the floor to start out with his tenure, but he wasn't able to surround Hunter Dickinson the complementary players needed and part of that was chasing Terrance Shannon Jr. a guy who is extremely talented but couldn't get admitted. The same thing happened with Caleb Love, which showed Juwan hadn't learned anything.

John Beilein didn't recruit many five-star prospects for a reason. He only offered recruits after they took official visits and he searched for the right kind of player. Juwan simply bet on talent -- talent that couldn't join Michigan most of the time, or he bet too much on players with family ties.

Yes, there were four draft picks in two seasons, the problem is that Michigan never got those players before they started to reach their full potential. That's not all Juwan's fault, but it feels like there was too much-throwing junk at the wall (based on talent) and hoping it would stick instead of building an actual team where the parts fit together.