Four missteps that led to Juwan Howard's dismissal at Michigan
Juwan Howard’s tenure as Michigan head coach came to an end on Friday , as the Wolverines parted ways with the homegrown star after five seasons with the program. As the search for his successor gets underway. Rivals explores the factors that led to Howard’s undoing as his alma mater’s head coach.
*****
2024 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position
2025 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team
2026 Rankings: Top 65
TRANSFER PORTAL: Latest news | Transfer search | Transfer tracker/player ranking (football) | Transfer team ranking (football) | Transfer tracker/player ranking (basketball) | Transfer team ranking (basketball) | Rivals Portal Twitter
*****
TRANSFER PORTAL MISSTEPS
Losing star forward Hunter Dickinson, a three-year Michigan letterman and two-time All-Big Ten selection, to Kansas through the portal is the disaster that grabs the most headlines, but it wasn’t the only portal mess that impacted Howard’s tenure. Michigan managed to miss on high-profile transfer targets in similar fashions during each of the last two cycles. The spring of 2022 saw Howard seemingly in the driver’s seat to land Texas Tech expat Terrence Shannon, who eventually committed to Illinois, after it became apparent that he’d need to do additional coursework to meet Michigan’s admissions standards. Shannon eventually helped usher out the Howard era by scoring 31 points for the Illini as they routed the Wolverines in mid-February. It wasn’t the last time Howard poured significant resources into a target that went elsewhere after an admissions mix-up, either. North Carolina transfer Caleb Love publicly committed to the Wolverines for a few weeks before discovering he lacked the necessary credits to play at Michigan. Love then re-entered the transfer portal and landed at Arizona, where he averaged better than 18 points and five rebounds per game on his way to All-Pac 12 recognition.
The case could be made that the two situations were not only sloppy, but indicative of a disjointed recruiting approach that saw different arms of the university on vastly different pages.
*****
FAILING TO CAPITALIZE ON HIS 2021 RECRUITING CLASS
Saying Howard’s future looked bright a few months before the 2021-22 season tipped off is severely understating the point. The Wolverines were coming off an Elite Eight appearance and, more importantly, had the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class in tow as they sped toward a season that saw them debut at No. 6 in the AP Top 25. A few months later, things had turned south, as Michigan finished the season 19-15, unranked and, despite an unexpected run to the Sweet 16, left fans wondering how things got so bad so quickly. The most damaging part of the season, however, was Howard’s top-ranked, six-man recruiting class shook out.
Just one member of Howard’s prized class (Kobe Bufkin) was selected in the first-round of the NBA Draft. and only No. 9 overall recruit Caleb Houstan managed a double-digit scoring average for the season. Obviously, the class’s underachievement didn't doom Howard’s tenure. But In an era where developing talent for the NBA is one of the most important recruiting tools, the way things unfolded certainly didn’t help the Wolverines cause on the trail.
*****
PUBLIC RELATIONS HITS
It’s not as though Howard was ever at the center of a true scandal or anything of the sort, really, but a series of small PR mishaps certainly didn’t help build anyone’s confidence in Howard’s future as a head coach. There was a dust-up with the Wisconsin coaching staff that resulted in a five-game suspicion back in 2022. In 2023, there was an internal investigation into an alleged incident involving a member of the Michigan team's training staff. There was also the unorthodox decision to suspend guard Dug McDaniel for only road games due to academic issues, allowing his leading scorer to continue to play in home games. The errors felt unforced, but weren’t the reasons Howard didn’t see a sixth season as the Wolverines head coach. Still, it’s fair to wonder if the long-celebrated Fab Five member could have been granted an additional year to right the ship if he managed to avoid stepping in it off the court from time to time.
*****
RECRUITING MISSES
Michigan got prospects such as Isaiah Collier (2023), Donovan Clingan (2022) on campus for visits in the last two cycles but lost the future stars to USC and UConn respectively. It’s not fair to assume things would have been drastically different if Howard landed one or both of high-level prospects, but such recruiting misses are noteworthy nevertheless, and Collier and Clingan aren't the only ones.