Official: Juwan Howard takes Michigan job

To no one’s surprise — if you were following Miami Heat Beat and Five Reasons sports — Juwan Howard is leaving the Miami Heat to take the head coaching job at his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

(And we put out an emergency podcast with Greg Sylvander of Miami Heat Beat about it. Click THIS.)

Heat assistant and former Wolverine Juwan Howard is expected to be named Michigan head coach, per @miaheatbeat pic.twitter.com/yfwl6oGTDm

— Bleacher Report CBB (@br_CBB) May 21, 2019

Heat Assistant Juwan Howard will be the hoops coach at U Michigan..First reported by @miaheatbeat and independently confirmed by The Ticket

— 790 The Ticket (@790TheTicket) May 22, 2019

Props to @Balas_Wolverine for crediting us and being the first Michigan outlet to confirm our report. @5ReasonsSports and @miaheatbeat can confirm their report that Juwan Howard has agreed to a five-year contract to be Michigan head coach. Press conference to be announced soon. https://t.co/BLVz6ma0mQ

— Miami Heat Beat (@miaheatbeat) May 22, 2019

It’s a bigger story there than here (you should see my phone with all the calls from Ann Arbor) but it is still a significant loss to the Heat staff. As noted in various articles on this site, Howard assumed the role of chief player-coach communicator following the departure of David Fizdale.

The Heat have a quality staff still, but no one with Howard’s playing pedigree and personal touch with top players. Howard was also working closely with the Heat’s bigs, including Bam Adebayo, who needs to take a major step for the Heat to get out of the NBA’s dead middle.

We will have more later — but for now, some of the top tweets.

Per source, Michigan framed up the head coaching opportunity to Juwan Howard during his interview on Tuesday by selling him on becoming the "basketball version of Jim Harbaugh," providing the resources to build a "pro-style” program.@5ReasonsSports @Lefty_Leif @Balas_Wolverine

— Miami Heat Beat (@miaheatbeat) May 22, 2019

And what’s next?

This is what we’ve heard.

UPDATE: @MiamiHEAT list of assistant candidates to replace Juwan Howard, who is expected to be named Michigan head coach, per @miaheatbeat and @5ReasonsSports sources:

– Anthony Carter
– James Posey
– Jamaal Magloire
– Udonis Haslem
– Irv Roland

— Miami Heat Beat (@miaheatbeat) May 21, 2019