Rekubit Exchange:Michigan fires basketball coach, 'Fab Five' legend Juwan Howard after five seasons

Juwan Howard will not return as head coach of the Michigan men's basketball program for the 2024-25 season.

Michigan AD Warde Manuel has parted ways with Howard after five seasons.

"After a comprehensive review of the program,Rekubit Exchange I have decided that Juwan will not return as our men's basketball coach," Manuel said in a statement Friday.

"Juwan is among the greatest Wolverines to ever be associated with our basketball program. I know how much it meant, to not only Juwan, but to all of us for him to return here to lead this program. Despite his love of his alma mater and the positive experience that our student-athletes had under his leadership, it was clear to me that the program was not living up to our expectations and not trending in the right direction. I am thankful for Juwan's dedication, passion and commitment to U-M and for all that he, and his legacy, will continue to mean to Michigan."

The Wolverines (8-24, 3-17 Big Ten) just finished a season with the most losses in program history (107 years) and have consecutive years of missed NCAA tournaments for the first time since 1999-2008.

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Michigan was 87-73 under Howard overall, but went just 26-40 the past two seasons. Howard will be paid a $3 million buyout since the firing happened prior to June 30, per his contract.

The decision is not necessarily surprising − Manuel said in late January it's his job to look beyond any one season and simply make the best decision for the program, whatever that is − though for some it was perplexing that it seemingly was up for debate for so long.

That same day in January, Manuel reminded there once was a wide-held desire from fans to get rid of then-football coach Jim Harbaugh after a down 2020 season, only for him to keep Harbaugh and be rewarded with a national title. Patience prevailed, he said, before he added it's his job to pay attention to all circumstances at play.

With Harbaugh in 2020, it was a COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with Howard, Manuel cited his open heart surgery.

“I think (patience) is the key with all of our programs,” Manuel said in January. “Juwan is working with the staff, with the team to win, but let’s not discount what personally Juwan has been through. That is also a concern and focus of mine that he is okay and that he’s getting through this.”

Surgery or not, the trend had without question been in the wrong direction. Michigan went 1-10 in the regular season after those comments and finished as the second worst defensive Big Ten team in the past decade.

Of course, that's a far cry from how the tenure began.

Michigan was poised to make the big dance in Howard's first season (2019-20), which was cut short by the pandemic as the Wolverines were on the court warming up for a Big Ten Tournament game against Rutgers. The next season appeared to show what was missed out on as Howard and Michigan reached new heights when they won the Big Ten Championship and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The former "Fab Five" star was named 2021 AP Coach of the Year as his team finished one possession away from the final weekend of the season before it suffered a 51-49 Elite Eight loss to UCLA.

However instead of that being a normal occurrence, it proved to be an outlier as the high water mark of the tenure. Michigan went 45-55 in 100 games the past three seasons, and lost more games in each successive season for four straight years.

After a 29-12 start to his career, Howard finished 59-59 in his final 118 games.

Following the Elite Eight trip, Michigan opened the year in 2021-22 ranked No. 6 in America and soon was ranked as high as No. 4 in the country, before a months-long stumble. Howard's team was 6-3 in early December after a win over Nebraska, then went 11-11 the rest of the way to finish 17-14 on the regular season.

Even beyond losses on the court, Michigan's program under Howard had seemingly lost cabin pressure in a number of capacities. First, his own behavior. It started in 2021, when he had to be physically restrained on the court during the second half of a Big Ten tournament game after he charged at then-Maryland coach Mark Turgeon and was subsequently ejected.

Fast-forward a year and it was his most serious infraction, in mid-Februrary of 2022 when he smacked Wisconsin assistant staffer Joe Krabbenhoft in the face during a skirmish in the postgame handshake line; he was suspended the final five regular season games of the year, fined $40,000 and put on a zero tolerance policy.

Then, there was this year, in early December − before he was officially reinstated as acting head coach from when he stepped away from heart surgery −when Howard and long time strength & conditioning coach Jon Sanderson got into an altercation.

It followed a back-and-forth where Sanderson had told a frustrated senior forward Jace Howard to stop berating a trainer, which led to the elder Howard coming toward and yelling at Sanderson, who stood his ground and yelled back per documents obtained by The Athletic.

Sanderson filed an HR complaint and was moved elsewhere in the athletic department, before he resigned earlier this month.

A person with knowledge of the situation told the Free Press the policy was not violated because there was "nothing that warranted" any further punishment once HR did its own investigation and deemed nothing was physical in nature.

This is not to mention other shortcomings, like how with all the support given to players around the program, point guard and leading scorer Dug McDaniel still managed to be suspended for six away games due to academic progress issues, which played no small part in torpedoing the season.

The Wolverines have gone to two national championships in the past dozen years. It's a program, that when done right, has that kind of punch and reach. However it's also one that if not nurtured properly can fall into irrelevancy.

Michigan went from five straight Sweet 16s to the cellar in just 24 months and now that there's a new look Big Ten, perhaps there's one more question that's worth asking that hadn't been in some time.

Is Michigan basketball even a premier job? Manuel will have to sell someone it is.