A somewhat (surprisingly?) interesting presser from Juwan Howard today… Hit on a lot of stuff, provided some candor.
Very disappointed with the effort vs. McNeese, said he knows they need to change something next year around this time.
Jaelin Llewellyn has been dealing with some concussion protocol stuff (although the timeline didn’t exactly line up with what he was saying/games that Llewellyn missed).
Game at the Palestra was brought to Michigan by Micah… Juwan was all in.
Also sounds like he watches Michigan football games like a message board poster 
Michigan loses 83-49 at home to Minnesota
There is one high school student reporter there to cover the game from Ann Arbor Pioneer. He waits an hour after the game patiently to talk to Juwan Howard
He is directed to a coat closet, where the lightbulb is burned out so he uses his iPhone flashlight and hits record
He asks: “Coach Howard, what do you need to do to turn this around?”
Juwan basks in the moment, pondering the question.
“That’s a great question. We know that four years from now when I’m definitely still the head coach, we will need to do something different”
“Thanks coach”, says our HS reporter. He leaves the building, sad but proud of himself for asking the question.
He gets in his car. Checks his phone to re-watch the video. There’s a notification. It’s a text.
It’s RJ Davis’ girlfriend
The plot thickens
https://x.com/csayf23/status/1742634765033808238?s=46&t=9MMrM6gOVy1pXVWIuEkHnw
Juwan becoming self-aware??? 
photo evidence of Juwan making Chris Hunter post in the www.umhoops.com game threads (via voice-to-text)
Observing them from about typically 2 or 1.5 hours before tip I will say their pregame routine was quite different than McNeese’s. I got in the arena around 90 minute mark before tip and Will Wade’s entire team and staff were going full speed through shooting drills and layups lines. This is quite unique and something I’ve never seen. Most teams only usually have a few managers and a couple players shooting. At 90mins Michigan only had Will Tschetter out (usually Nimari is always first, but he wasn’t that day). Will was doing full game speed post work with Jay Smith. Slowly but surely Michigan players trickled out by 60ish or under minute mark. That to me seems more of a style of “pro freedoms” from Juwan vs “college structured” from Wade. But it’s hard to be shocked when McNeese came out and controlled that game based on how serious they took prep and warmups. Yes, I’m fully aware warmups don’t mean anything once the lights turn on. Just an observation.
The only thing I actually did think was weird was our staff. Phil sat on our bench and didn’t talk to a sole from like the 90 min mark when I got there until the 10 minute mark when they all go back into the locker room. A bit odd our associate head coach seemingly had no role in gameday pregame prep? Not fair to say with certainty if that’s the case, but still. Saddi came out about 45-60 ish min mark and sat in stands by team and watched them warmup. Juwan and Eisley stayed in the locker room the entire time prepping I imagine (as is normal by every single other head coach).
Probably a whole lot of nothing, but maybe something that contributes to a sleepy losing effort for every post-Christmas game? Not sure lol
Just my observations
I must have some PTSD from all of our negative headlines and outcomes so far this season. When I came to the site and noticed a new article, I swear the first 3 words I saw were “Juwan Howard arrest”; “arrest” in place of “restart”. I am not making that up.
“Video: Juwan Howard recaps arrest warrant following loss to McNeese State”
“they’ll never catch me!”
One thing on warmups is that they are usually pretty individual. So you have to compare to other games to really get a feel.
Pretty sure Izzo sits and watches other teams warm up, which is bizarre for a HC. Sounds similar to Phil in that sense.
I don’t think there’s really a whole lot that coaches can do in the three hours before a game or whatever in all honesty.
I definitely wonder if the unspoken factor in the hours leading up to the game is that the Dug rumors were officially swirling that morning. I have no idea what kind of toll that would take, if any, on a team…but the energy seemed low from the players, coaches, and fans (from the TV perspective.)
As I sat down to watch the game, that was about as little hope as I had ever felt for a game in which we were the favorite. And for me, that hopelessness was driven by the Dug rumors moreso than anything else.
As I was watching, I immediately felt like that was the most engaged Juwan had been since the presser right after BQ’s Juwan article dropped (right before COVID, maybe)? Felt forced at first, but he seemed really relaxed for once.
I am not betting on that being the standard for Juwan pressers moving forward, though lol.
Don’t they open Crisler 60 minutes before the tip?
What happened to those Dug rumors anyway?
Looks like Michigan’s winter semester starts Monday.
So I guess we should know one way or another by then?
Yes. But, I get early access to help run and set up student section