Michigan AD Warde Manuel on Juwan Howard future: 'Haven't really given that any thought'

Athletic director Warde Manuel is not happy with how Michigan basketball's season has gone, but that doesn't mean he has any plans to make changes in leadership with Juwan Howard.

Shortly after he introduced Sherrone Moore as the 21st head coach in Michigan football history, Manuel spoke for a rare 40 minutes Saturday morning with a small contingent of reporters on everything from Moore's future, to Harbaugh's past.

Another of the main topics was Howard.

"Here’s what I’ll tell you, I have not spent one moment thinking about anything but supporting Juwan and this team," Manuel said. "I haven’t thought about the evaluation of the season, all that stuff comes at the end of the season, guys. I don’t — it’s rare, I’ve done it in my career — but it’s extremely rare for me to make a decision in the middle of the season.

"Something’s really gotta be off. I’ve not thought about it, I haven’t talked to him about it, we haven’t had that conversation. All that happens and will happen at the end of the season."

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In his stint as UConn'a AD, Manuel fired Paul Pasqualoni as head football coach in September 2013 after the Huskies opened that year 0-4, buying out the rest of his contract for $750,000. However, Manuel was clear there is no plan to do that in-season this year, especially when he considers what Howard went through a little more than 100 days ago.

Howard underwent heart surgery in mid-September and stayed in the hospital for 15 days after. Even after he was discharged, it required weeks of rehab before he was allowed to rejoin the team in even a limited capacity and almost three months to the day before he officially served as head coach in a game.

While he didn't make the comparison directly, Manuel was asked about where he learned patience from; he laughed before he gave a lengthy response, which included a reference to the pandemic-shortened 2020 football season in which Michigan went a dismal 2-4.

He said "everybody" wanted Harbaugh fired. Three seasons later, the team went 15-0 and won its first national championship since 1997.

Then he doubled down on the importance of patience.

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"I think that’s the key with all of our programs," Manuel began. "Juwan is working with the staff, with the team to win, but let’s not discount what personally Juwan has been through. That is also a concern and focus of mine that he is OK and that he’s getting through this.

"He doesn’t like it, the staff doesn’t like it, the student athletes don’t like where we are right now. But I have not seen a lack of effort on the team. We can play better defense at times. We can turn over the ball less, we can do things that wold help us win. But I’m watching, I’m talking to Juwan I know he’s working and the student athlete and coaches are working on it as well."

Michigan is in the midst of its worst season in decades as the program is not only without point guard Dug McDaniel on road games as he works through academic issues, but has been without its longest tenured staffer; former strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson who stepped away from the program in December after he and Howard got into an altercation.

Dating back to 2021, when the Wolverines lost in the Elite Eight to UCLA, they are 44-43 overall.

Although they made the Sweet 16 (for the fifth consecutive tourney) in 2022, Michigan missed the NCAAs last in 2023 and is just 25-28 since that regional semifinal loss to Villanova.

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After Tuesday's 32-point loss to Purdue, the program's most lopsided in 17 years, former All-Big Ten guard Nik Stauskas left a comment on the team's Instagram account expressing his discontent with the state of the program.

Howard responded Friday night when asked about it on a video call with reporters when he said Stauskas remains one of the family and is entitled to his opinion, however he would have preferred that be handled behind closed doors rather than in a public setting.

It has been that type of season for the Wolverines, but Manuel has been rewarded with patience before. Although he didn't tip his hand on anything that will happen in the future, nothing is happening anytime soon.

"My focus with Juwan and each of our teams is to support them to have success to make sure that they have the things they need during the season (and) to drive success after the season," Manuel said. "So I haven’t really given that any thought."

Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Warde Manuel focused on supporting Michigan basketball's Juwan Howard