Noteworthy comments from Juwan Howard following Purdue Fort Wayne

After a 75-56 victory to begin the 2022-23 season, Michigan Wolverines men’s basketball coach Juwan Howard addressed the media on his team’s performance.

Here are the most noteworthy things Howard had to say:

On how Hunter Dickinson and Jett Howard help each other:

“Well Hunter, he’s in my opinion and in three years of coaching him, a high IQ player. He’s very unselfish, great passer, when he gets double teamed he’s gonna do his best to try to make the right play by finding open guys. And with the spacing we have on the floor (Jett Howard) is gonna be a recipient of it, (Terrence Williams II, Kobe Bufkin, Joey Baker), I mean the list goes on. So Jett was one of the guys also that got some good open looks because of Hunter being doubled, but also Jett made some plays himself, too.”

On seeing his sons play for Michigan:

“It’s a dream come true because that’s something that never happens every day. It’s one of those moments where you have a special opportunity to coach your alma mater and then knowing the times where you were in the NBA, or you were coaching in the NBA, how much you loved your alma mater and talked about the only college they’d go to would be Michigan, teaching them the fight song. To now see it all come to fruition and seeing the opportunity on how it’s presented with the growth of both boys since in the backyard, in high school practice, in AAU, and now in Ann Arbor in front of our great crowd cheering them on, it’s a blessing.”

On the different styles of Jaelin Llewellyn and Dug McDaniel:

“They’re both pass first point guards, smart, unselfish, and teammates enjoy playing with them. There are gonna be times where they both play together on the floor, but we’re still just feeling things out. This is our first game, but it’s nice to see we have both guys we can use in different situations that I trust is gonna lead us.”

On the team’s defensive buy-in:

“They’ve always bought in but it’s about continuing to keep growing it. Obviously accountability is a part of it, there’s no room for a lack of effort — not saying we had that. Overall, I loved that there was effort and a team that shoots very well from the three point land, for them to only shoot 23% from three and 29% from the field, and scoring is one of their strengths. It was good to know that we worked on that for those last two days.”

Pushing back against a question on Kobe Bufkin’s long range success in the game:

“Everyones gonna do fine. It was the first game, please, stop that. (Bufkin) is gonna be great this year, and we’re gonna need him. I have no worry in any of our guys. Don’t single out one person, please don’t do that.”

On emphasizing rebounding:

“I emphasized that in halftime. At halftime we gave up six offensive rebounds and looking at the sheet here, total was 15. We will get better in that area. It’s a matter of effort and putting the body on someone, but it’s the first game. We’ll get better at it, I’m not panicking yet.”