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The Michigan Wolverines basketball program and Juwan Howard have agreed to a five-year deal that will make Howard the 17th head coach in school history.
Howard was formerly an assistant coach of the Miami Heat and two of his former players reached out last night when Howard and Michigan were close to a deal.
The first is the best of this generation and potentially of all time:
Man WHAT!!!!?? Absolutely the right choice and i hope it becomes a done deal ASAP!! One of my favorite people I’ve ever met at the age of 16 and been around since then. https://t.co/hdmF60odnm
— LeBron James (@KingJames) May 22, 2019
Next is LeBron’s best friend and teammate Dwayne Wade who was equally excited for his former teammate and coach:
Talk to me nice. Say it is so!!!? My guy deserves this opportunity. This will only be right https://t.co/TWWH4UuiTZ
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) May 22, 2019
ESPN analyst Jordan Cornette responded with this interesting tidbit about the recruiting skills that Howard has and how he will utilize it at Michigan.
Juwan Howard as a recruiter? Dude recruited the best class in Wolverines history when he was 17! Remember, Juwan brought the Fab5 together
— jordan cornette (@jordancornette) May 22, 2019
The man who broke the story, Jon Rothstein, compared Howard’s path to that of an NBA legend who is coaching further East:
Juwan Howard's path to being the head coach at his alma mater is very similar to the path that Patrick Ewing took to becoming the head coach at Georgetown. The real question now at Michigan --- who will be Howard's assistants next season?
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 22, 2019
Michigan’s student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, added this nice graphic:
Former Fab Five star Juwan Howard is set to become the 17th Michigan men’s basketball coach in school history pic.twitter.com/r9SkX0QK2o
— Mich. Daily Sports (@theblockm) May 22, 2019
A little bit of interesting information for all of our videogame lovers out there:
If Juwan Howard gets the Michigan job, he will become the 11th current CBB coach to also appear in NBA Jam.
— Troy Machir (@TroyMachir) May 21, 2019
Patrick Ewing
Anfernee Hardaway
Bobby Hurley
Dan Majerle
Danny Manning
Donyell Marshall
Aaron McKie
Terry Porter
Jerry Stackhouse
Damon Stoudamire
The University of Michigan is now also the only school in the FBS that has both their men’s basketball and football coaches be former players of the university:
If Michigan does go through with hiring Juwan Howard, it will be the only program in FBS where both football and basketball head coaches are alums.
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) May 21, 2019
Potentially most importantly, it seems that the Howard hire has peaked the interest of Michigan’s top recruit, Jalen Wilson, who decommited last week following Beilein’s departure.
— jwill (@thejalenwilson) May 22, 2019
This hire could pay immediate dividends for the program if the top-50 recruit decided to return to Ann Arbor.
Speaking of incredible recruiting possibilities, how about this idea?
Juwan Howard should be good hire @umichbball, especially because he’ll bring @MiamiHEAT culture of work ethic & toughness he learned from Pat Riley & Eric Spoelstra. He’ll likely get Bronny James & Zaire Wade. Beilein culture was great, too. Fab Five culture? Fun times but nah.
— Fran Fraschilla (@franfraschilla) May 22, 2019
The recruiting potential is certainly the most fascinating aspect of Howard’s resume. We will see if he can bring these three and many more in the future.
For more on the Juwan Howard hire, tune into Maize N’ Brew throughout the week.