It has been an eventful last five seasons for former Michigan basketball head coach Juwan Howard until he was let go in March of 2024. However, there was more important matters to Howard when he went through a health scare as he had heart surgery. In an interview with Brendan Quinn of The Athletic, he talks openly about the procedure and his regrets with the Wolverines.
Howard was candid in the interview, saying that he “was scared” about doctors finding blood clots and an unruptured aneurysm in his body that he needed to take care of to try to get back to full health. He would even express that he “never admitted” that to people like his wife, his family, or even the staff for the Michigan basketball team.
“I was scared,” Howard said. “But I never admitted that. I didn’t show it in front of my wife or my family, and I never showed it in front of my staff.”
Howard talks about not wanting to scare the players
The surgery was fortunately a success, one that the program announced on September 15 of of last year, but according to The Athletic from Howard, he told his team a day earlier. This would be a decision that he apparently regrets as he “didn't want to scare the players” in concerns about his long-term situation with the Wolverines and thought solely about the players he recruited to Michigan or even transferred.
“I didn’t want to scare the players in a way where they might not want to finish out their years here and enter the transfer portal, or where the players I was recruiting might not want to come,” Howard says. “To go through and explain if I’m going to be here or not, if I’m going to be coaching. I ultimately decided to keep it close to the vest.”
If there is one of many regrets that Howard had, it was the timeline in which he returned to coach the Michigan basketball program as he believed he rushed through the process of trying to get back rather than fully healing up. The procedure reportedly lasted nine hours with an estimated recovery time of “6-12 weeks” and even spent 15 days in the hospital after the operation.
Howard compared his mindset to a “Marvel Hero” on being “naive”
Howard would tell one assistant coach on his staff that he would return in two weeks, which looking back at it, the former head coach felt like he “was impatient with the process.” He would compare how he felt to a Marvel superhero, a larger than life character only seen in comic books, movies, or television, but not a human being in real life.
“I thought I was a Marvel hero, but this was real life stuff I was dealing with, and I was extremely naive,” Howard says. “I was impatient with the process.”
What would result is health complications from his heart surgery as doctors “advised him to step away and undergo another surgery to address an atrial flutter that sapped his energy and caused severe discomfort.” However, because of travel situations with the team in January, a follow-up procedure is rescheduled for April 19 as he mentioned how he let the “competitiveness take control over” of “what you know in your heart.”
“You can allow your competitiveness and take control over, you know, what you know in your heart,” Howard says. “If I could go back and do it all over again, I would’ve taken time off to really get help. I should’ve listened more to the doctors and my wife. There were days that I wouldn’t get any sleep and could barely get out of bed, but I’d go in there and try to act like I was fine.”
Despite having regrets, the former head coach said he “would do it again”
The common question that is possibly pondered over when looking at all of the health problems would be simple? Why did he coach this past season? He would mention that it is because of “an obligation to his players and staff” which he called the decision to not step aside as “alpha male stuff” which is definitely in a negative connotation, but says he'd “do it again.”
“That’s where that badge of honor comes in from,” Howard says, adding that he doesn’t regret finishing out the season once he decided to return. “Was that probably the right approach you take looking back on it? No, but if I had to do it again, I would do it again.”
Howard spent five seasons with the Michigan basketball team where it ended up being a mixed bag, but still had a lot of success as they won a Big Ten title in 2021 and had multiple national tourney appearances. However, this last season was his worst mark as the Wolverines finished 8-24 and 3-17 in conference play as they recently have hired former Florida Atlantic University head coach Dusty May to lead the program.
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