'Finish': Michigan basketball takes lesson from football team's Rose Bowl win over Alabama
Initially, Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard planned to bring his entire team and staff together to watch No. 1 Michigan football's Rose Bowl matchup against No. 4 Alabama in Monday's college football playoff semifinal.
Then, he remembered. He's way too superstitious.
"I was like, you know, I need to be dialed in, I can't have no distractions while I'm watching this game," Howard explained Wednesday afternoon on a video call with reporters. "I have to be in the right seat, with the right clothes on to watch and lock into every play that's on the (field), whether that's defense, offense or special teams."
So, Howard watched at home with his wife, Jenine − who, true to form, he made switch seats after the third quarter when he believed she was "bringing some bad luck" to the team.
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Elsewhere, a few groups of players gathered at their various apartments to watch the Wolverines win their biggest game, perhaps ever, and move one victory away from their first national championship in more than a quarter of a century.
Howard began clapping as soon as the question of U-M's football team came up and later felt the need to explain why his answer was more than three minutes long. He's a "Michigan man" he said, which is why he bleeds maize and blue for each program on campus.
That, of course, goes for the football team, which is the king of the athletic department, and so close to the mountaintop.
"No matter who's out there representing the maize and blue," Howard said. "You cheer hard for them."
As happy as he was watching the game, Howard couldn't help but juxtapose it against where his own Michigan team sits (6-7, 1-1 Big Ten) as it comes off of consecutive losses, the most recent of which came at home to McNeese State on a sleepy Friday evening during Christmas break.
Howard confirmed Wednesday what Terrence Williams told reporters the night of that loss: The defensive issues which allowed McNeese to shoot 47.6% from the floor, outscore U-M, 42-14, in the paint, and dominate fastbreak points (12-0) were largely problems based on hustle and pride.
"One-on-one breakdown, one-on-one blow-by, one-on-one guy ends up laying the ball up at the rim and we react too late," Howard said. "That cannot happen. That's based on being alert and also bringing effort and that's something we had missing that night."
Why didn't U-M bring the requisite effort? That's the first question Howard asked himself, as he has now vowed to look at the way his team handles this stretch during the extended holiday break.
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After all, it was the same time last year when Michigan came back from more than a week off and dropped a home game to Central Michigan, 63-61, which ultimately was likely the deciding factor between missing and making the NCAA Tournament.
Howard said it's much too early to think about March − the only way this team will improve and grow, he says, is by focusing one day at a time − but that doesn't mean he's naive to the point he doesn't recognize the hole his team has dug.
"Getting back to the meat and potatoes of your question, yes, I'm not happy with our record or some of the losses we've had," Howard said. "I'm not going to come up here and fake it, never will, some of those tough losses have been close games.
"Oregon, Florida, Indiana, those games I feel was one or two possessions that we needed to have that we fell short of. That's the room for improvement that we must grow in."
Michigan's next chance to show it has grown?
Its first game of 2024, Thursday at home against Minnesota (9 p.m. EST, Peacock) with Big Ten play officially on the clock. It's about as close to a must-win game as happens in the first week of January and though the Golden Gophers are 10-3, nine (!) of those victories are quad-four home games, per KenPom metrics.
It's a game the Wolverines could hypothetically win by double digits, which is how they've earned five of their six victories this season. However, if they're in a tight contest, it's hard to feel too optimistic. Four of U-M's seven losses have come by four points or fewer or in overtime, and the Wolverines are 2-13 in five years of the Howard era in one-possession games.
Michigan football's most recent game was within one possession the entire way, something Howard noticed and is hoping to instill into his own team's game.
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"When Alabama was making their run, our mindset, our attitude did not change," Howard said of the Rose Bowl. "Our coach and staff prepared our players and also how our players who are the leaders kept everyone mentally stable. I, of course, learned a lot from that and our player learned a lot as well.
"We took away mental stability, no matter what, when things are not going your way you have to stay locked in and just finish. Finish, finish, finish."
Jaelin Llewellyn questionable vs. Minnesota
The injury bug has bit Jaelin Llewellyn again and he's officially questionable for Thursday night's game vs. Minnesota per his head coach. The graduate student and former transfer from Princeton missed the first seven games of the season as he worked his way back from ACL surgery last January, but this was unrelated.
"It's a concussion protocol," Howard said, which he sustained in the game against Florida. "Coming off the break, he still had been in concussion protocol for a few days, and that as we all know is a very delicate injury where you of course have to take your time with that and be respectful of a player's health.
"I'm always going to be that guy, never going to force a guy when they're not healthy, not ready to go to go out there on the floor and play."
Llewellyn played against Oregon and Indiana, then missed U-M's road game against Iowa before he returned and played five minutes in a double-OT loss to Florida. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound point guard is averaging 2.8 points and 1.0 assists in four games this season.
Llewellyn's first season in Ann Arbor was cut short, too, when he tore his ACL in December.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball takes lesson from football team's Rose Bowl win
