The Weekender: Juwan Howard No Longer the Best Coach on Michigan's Bench, Will Wade No Longer a Coach At All and Joe Buck Impacting the OSU Football Schedule?

By George Eisner on March 13, 2022 at 3:06 pm
Juwan Howard
Juwan Howard
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Michigan falters in Juwan Howard’s return

Unlike Ohio State, Michigan might miss the NCAA Tournament when the selection show takes place later this evening. That is not conjecture born out of reckless and spiteful distaste for a rival – it is merely what the last two decades of data show with respect to Michigan's current record.

Michigan’s record is 17-14.... The only team over the last 20 years to receive an at-large bid without being at least four games over .500 was Michigan State just last season. While the Spartans were 15-12, it’s worth noting that the pandemic prevented them from playing a full nonconference schedule. They’re not a particularly useful exception. — Andrew Kahn, MLive Media Group

The Wolverines chose this fate. Though his impact on recruiting talent to Ann Arbor has clearly been substantial, Juwan Howard's tumultuous tenure as head coach of Michigan has seen a variety of on-court shortcomings and short-circuits.

After last month's handshake line controversy following the game vs. Wisconsin, Howard made his return to the court this week in alarming fashion. The same Wolverines team that upset Ohio State on the road only days earlier proceeded to surrender a 60-43 lead to Indiana in their opening Big Ten Tournament game. Howard and his players gave up a 31-9 run to close out the loss.

Conversely, as Buckeye fans can attest, interim head coach Phil Martelli had the Wolverines playing much more consistent basketball prior to moving back down the bench. Martelli not only coached the Wolverines to the win over Ohio State last week, but also earned a crucial home win over rival Michigan State and took down Rutgers the day after assuming interim responsibilities.

At this point, it is fair to wonder if Michigan enacting a harsher punishment for Howard's loss of composure would have resulted in a rosier outlook at the end of the season. Few teams come equipped with a veteran assistant such as Martelli that boasts nearly two-and-a-half decades of Division I head coach experience, and he presumably would have done a better job at managing the end of the Indiana meltdown than Howard did.

But it looks much better for Michigan if the third-best member of the Fab 5 coaches the program through a nice tournament stretch than the guy Howard admitted he brought on staff because of concerns about his own head coaching background.

Of course, that assumes they are even granted access to March Madness.

Will Wade finally gets the axe

Years after he was first accused of committing major recruiting violations, Will Wade was finally fired as LSU’s head coach on Saturday, just one day before a Selection Sunday in which LSU is likely to be selected to play in the NCAA Tournament.

Wade was a key figure in several investigations surrounding financial foul play in college basketball going back to 2017 when he took the job in Baton Rouge. The notice of allegations provided by the NCAA this week included references to at least four separate Level 1 recruiting violations, ultimately leading to his dismissal.

Given LSU's 22-11 record, the Tigers are considered a safe pick for an NCAA Tournament seed. That context makes it much more remarkable that a program with such high visibility would have to fire the man responsible for cheating the team into relevance, right before the most important time of the season.

Joe Buck traded for an Ohio State game?

On Friday, a report from the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand suggested that Joe Buck's departure from Fox to ESPN would include a rights swap on one of next season's Big Ten games.

Awful Announcing’s Ben Koo floated the likely possibility that Ohio State’s season opener against Notre Dame would be the game Fox chooses.

Burke Magnus, ESPN's president of programming and original content, refuted that speculation on Saturday night.

Still, the possibility that Ohio State’s first game of the season will be a noon game on Fox rather than a primetime game on ABC seems to be a very real one.

ICYMI

Chris Holtmann's Poor Record in Tournament Games Just Keeps Getting Worse

As a seasoned educator, Johnny Ginter has a lot of experience with testing. With many college basketball teams facing their final exams soon, Ginter offers insight on the career performance of Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann in March.

Chris Holtmann Getting “A Ton of Calls” About Assistant Coaching Vacancy

It became news at the beginning of March that Ohio State's longest-tenured assistant basketball coach would depart at the end of the season. Ryan Pedon is the new head coach at Illinois State, and Chris Holtmann is already strategizing for how to fill the impending vacancy.

Former UCLA Left Tackle Offers Insight on New Ohio State OL Coach Justin Frye

With an abundance of national talent in Indianapolis last weekend for the NFL Combine, Dan Hope took the opportunity to get some details on new Buckeye coach Justin Frye. Sean Rhyan learned the left tackle position under Frye for three years at UCLA, and now projects as an early-to-mid round pick in the upcoming NFL Draft.

What's Next

  • Men's Hoops: NCAA Tournament Selection Show, Today at 6 p.m. ET
  • Women's Hoops: NCAA Tournament Selection Show, Today at 8 p.m. ET
  • Women's Swim and Dive: NCAA Championships, Wednesday 
  • Women's Hockey: NCAA Frozen Four Semifinals @ Yale, Friday at 7 p.m.
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