Michigan basketball names Juwan Howard head coach

After John Beilein departed for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Michigan has reached back into the Fab Five era to find its next head coach, Juwan Howard.

After a quick interview process, the Michigan Wolverines have named former Fab Five star, Juwan Howard as the new head basketball coach. Howard replaces John Beilein who left to take the head coach job with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. Stadium’s Jeff Goodman was the first to break the news of the hire and Howard signing a five-year deal.

The move is a shrewd one for Michigan, which caught a bad break by having Beilein leave so late in the recruiting season. Almost every major coaching candidate ended up with a post by the time Beilein bolted but landing an alum who some consider a rising star in the profession was a smart move.

Howard, who had interviewed with the Minnesota Timberwolves for their head coaching vacancy before it went to Ryan Saunders, now has the task of trying to maintain the elite level of basketball Beilein established at Michigan. The Wolverines are losing a few players from this year’s core, with Charles Matthews graduating along with Ignas Brazdeikis and Jordan Poole declaring for the NBA Draft, but they still have a lot of talented players in the mix.

One of Howard’s first challenges will be to convince incoming freshman Jalen Wilson to remain at Michigan. Wilson re-opened his recruitment after Beilein left, but put out a very interesting tweet after Howard was hired.

There is also plenty of optimism with Howard, who can help Michigan capitalize on the trend of having former alums bring glory to their old schools. Penny Hardaway has begun to do that at Memphis, landing the nation’s top recruiting class and making the Tigers a potential Final Four contender overnight. Plus, Michigan has another alum, Jim Harbaugh, coaching the football team. They are now the only program with their football and basketball coaches being alums of the school.

It will be interesting to see if Howard can do what Michigan’s other highly paid coach, Jim Harbaugh, cannot by regularly beating his top rivals and winning championships.