Michigan basketball's Jace Howard to miss 4-6 weeks with knee injury
Michigan basketball received bad news less than eight hours before it was scheduled to tip off its 2023-24 season with an exhibition game against Northwood University: Junior forward Jace Howard is out with a stress fracture in his right knee and tibia.
He is expected to miss four to six weeks. It is not yet clear exactly when or how Howard sustained the injury.
"This is unfortunate for Jace as he is a vital member of his program," his coach and father, Juwan Howard, said in a statement Friday. "We know over the next four to six weeks he will be diligent and work as hard as he can to get healthy."
The earlier side of that projected timetable would mean a potential return after seven games, when U-M travels to Oregon on Dec. 2. Missing the full six weeks would cost him the first 10 games, with a return for a home game against Eastern Michigan on Dec. 16.
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The Wolverines held an intrasquad scrimmage Oct. 22 and shortly beforehand, a U-M spokesman told reporters "Jace and Jaelin (Llewellyn) will not play" but did not go into any further detail. Llewellyn has been out since last December when he tore his ACL against Kentucky in London.
"You never want to get injured, especially at the beginning of the season," Jace Howard said in the statement. "It hasn't been easy not being with my brothers on the floor, however, I am going to continue to be a voice and make an impact."
Howard was a captain on last year's team and has played in 55 career games, including 30 a season ago. He averaged 1.2 points and 0.9 rebounds in less than eight minutes per game. The best game of his career came in late January at Penn State, when he had six points and three rebounds in 18 minutes.
Howard again was one of three representatives to represent Michigan at Big Ten media days in Minneapolis last month; he was the only returning player to do so alongside two key transfers, Nimari Burnett (Alabama) and Olivier Nkamhoua (Tennessee).
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Howard's injury is the latest blow for a Wolverines team starting the season without its head coach: Juwan Howard continues to recover from offseason heart surgery.
Associate head coach Phil Martelli went on WTKA-AM (1050) earlier this week after a report stated Howard might not be back until Christmas, despite initial hopes of a return near the start of the year.
“No setbacks. Everything is not full speed ahead; it's the appropriate speed ahead,” Martelli said Wednesday. “The beauty of this whole thing is that no one’s ever given us a date, nor to my knowledge, given him a date. So it wasn't like on Nov. 2, you need to be doing ABC, or on Nov. 6, don't plan on not being in Crisler — or any of that kind of stuff.
“It's all been focused on, ‘What do I do today to make another step forward?’ I would say he is making steps forward. As we speak, he’s making steps forward.”
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Currently, the Wolverines have nine healthy scholarship players, only two of whom (Terrance Williams II and Will Tschetter) were in the program prior to last season.
U-M opens its regular season Tuesday against UNC Asheville at Crisler Center.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball's Jace Howard out 4-6 weeks with knee injury
