After two seasons with Michigan, Juwan Howard has earned one of the highest college basketball’s honors as a coach.
Howard won The Associated Press men’s college basketball coach of the year last week. Mark Few, Scott Drew, and Nate Oats were also close contenders for the award.
Howard is now the first University of Michigan coach in 36 years to be selected as AP National Coach of the Year. He also becomes only the eighth coach in the Big Ten to win since the first award was announced in 1967.
Howard led the Wolverines to a 23-5 record and a 14-3 in one of the toughest conferences in college basketball. Michigan earned a 1 seed in March Madness, making it the program’s third No. 1 seed in history. The program was able to make it the Elite Eight before falling short to UCLA.
Besides this award, Howard has also been named the Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year, USBWA’s District V Coach of the Year and the National Association of Basketball Coaches District 7 Coach of the Year.
It’s evident Howard has already left a substantial mark on the program in just two years. He’s already compiled a 42-17 record (.712 winning percentage). In his first season, Michigan went 19-12 and reached a season-high ranking of No. 4 after winning the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the fall. This season, they were ranked as high as No. 2 and were never ranked outside of the AP Top 25.
“The players were the stars and what made our season be a success,” Howard said. “You want to talk about what happens on the floor, but off the floor and what they did, it was amazing. If I was their age, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to be as disciplined and smart, sacrifice like the way they did.”
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