Jace Howard is entering his final season playing for the Michigan Wolverines, and at Media Days like the one last week, he isn’t often asked about himself.
At last year’s Media Day, the first questions he took were about how his younger brother, Jett, was doing after being drafted by the Orlando Magic in the first round. This season, the first question he was asked was about his dad, former Michigan head coach Juwan Howard.
Howard, fired after a tumultuous 2023-24 season that ended with the Wolverines only winning eight games and losing a program-record 17 Big Ten games, had started the season on the sideline following heart surgery in Sept. 2023.
Juwan, who now works as an assistant coach with the Brooklyn Nets, appears to be doing well, according to his son.
“He’s good, man,” Jace said. “He had a follow-up procedure and he’s recovering well from it.”
Howard, who returns as a captain for Michigan this season, missed a large portion of last season after suffering a stress fracture in his knee and a small tear in his patella. After undergoing a procedure this summer, he was limited at Media Day, shooting a little but spending most of the open portion on an exercise bike.
Appearing in 10 games last season, Howard only scored 26 total points, mostly in garbage time. The most noteworthy thing he was involved in last season came off the court. A reported disagreement with then-head trainer Jon Sanderson led to a verbal spat between Sanderson and Juwan Howard, which led to Sanderson’s resignation.
Sanderson, who had previously been with Michigan for 15 seasons and was seen as a key piece who helped NBA-bound Michigan players add strength to their frame, now works at Vanderbilt.
Jace Howard reflected on the struggles of last season without referencing that incident directly, speaking on his role as a veteran on a team full of new faces.
“It was definitely a season where you needed some resilience,” Howard said. “There were so many lessons learned from that season, good lessons that you can take away from that, from obviously the negative stuff, and turning it into something positive. It felt great to bring (those lessons) into this year and apply it on the court and be able to teach the younger guys and be a mentor for them, now that I’m the older guy on the block.”
It’s easy to forget Howard is the longest-tenured player in the program now, entering his fifth-season with the Wolverine. Maize n Brew asked Howard is it feels weird being the veteran of the group.
“It’s super weird,” he said. “Because I remember when I first came here, I was so young, everyone was talking about how young I was. I was on a vet team then, (now) I’m the longest tenured guy, I got some teammates that are married, Isaiah (Livers) and Austin (Davis), it goes by fast.”
The 2024-25 season is all about new beginnings for Michigan, with a revamped coaching staff and nine new scholarship players. Wearing his dad’s No. 25 in the first four years of his collegiate career, Howard decided to change to a new number.
“I just wanted something different,” Howard said. “I’ve always wanted to wear No. 7, too, and obviously my dad’s gone, so I just wanted to do something that I wanted to do, that would be something that focused on myself and created my own identity.”
When reflecting further on the lessons he learned from last season, Howard said he learned not to rush back from injury, after re-injuring himself the day before he was supposed to return. He also learned how to get through losses, saying he’s “never lost as much” throughout his playing career as he did last season.
After how things ended with Juwan, it would have made total sense if Jace wanted to transfer and play somewhere else. But staying in Ann Arbor was about his personal connections, something he clearly holds dearly.
“As soon as coach May got hired, he texted me like 40 minutes (after the news was released) and I thought that was pretty big,” Howard said. “How excited he was to be here, how excited he was to coach me if that’s what I wanted to do. Coach Akeem (Miskdeen) and coach May were the first coaches to recruit me out of high school.
“You know that 12 o’clock Midnight hits, and then coaches can start reaching out — Coach Keem was the first coach to text me. My uncle knew coach May and coach Keem. It was something that was able to stick with me, and coach May is one of the personable people I’ve ever met. Him being such a relationship guy and challenging myself to learn a new system, and a new coaches’ philosophy was something I really wanted to do. It was a no-brainer to stay.”
While it’s unclear how much he’ll contribute on the court this season, I still stand by my take from before last season — Howard is clearly intelligent, well-spoken and loves basketball. Considering he wanted to stay and learn a new system, I think coaching is in his future.
