His bona fides as a teacher and strategist are growing by leaps and bounds. Absorbing the LSU haymakers and coming back time and again, switching to a zone at a critical juncture, changing matchups, bringing the help defense; not flawless, but there's no doubting that his coaching is high level.
Apart from the pure coaching aspect, Juwan's persona, public and with the team and staff, is even more exceptional. Having watched him in numerous press exposures, I have yet to hear him criticize a player. Cases in point: Smith and Franz last night. Juwan refused to dwell on the negative. Smith made a lot of mistakes and had a poor game for him, but Juwan instead of agreeing to that, said that Smith does a lot of things that fans don't notice but coaches do. He made it into a positive take. Same with Franz, who struggled mightily for 30 minutes but came through at crunch time. "Big time players make big time plays" said Juwan. Not only is that a good thing to say, but it gives the player confidence. He always pumps up his players; never brings them down.
Juwan keeps criticism in house. He sticks ferociously to the mantra to improve every day, to fix it if it's broken. So much so that his interviews can be boring. He will accept responsibility for his own actions, as he did after his ejection against Maryland. The important thing is that his team buys into the mantras. You can have great schemes that don't work if the team doesn't work to make it happen. It's one of the great pleasures of this season to see the fire and the buy in. Juwan urging the bench to cheer on the team on the floor and acknowledging the crowd. Juwan is one of a kind. He's genuine, loves Michigan and has his players' backs. Love the guy no matter what happens.
Apart from the pure coaching aspect, Juwan's persona, public and with the team and staff, is even more exceptional. Having watched him in numerous press exposures, I have yet to hear him criticize a player. Cases in point: Smith and Franz last night. Juwan refused to dwell on the negative. Smith made a lot of mistakes and had a poor game for him, but Juwan instead of agreeing to that, said that Smith does a lot of things that fans don't notice but coaches do. He made it into a positive take. Same with Franz, who struggled mightily for 30 minutes but came through at crunch time. "Big time players make big time plays" said Juwan. Not only is that a good thing to say, but it gives the player confidence. He always pumps up his players; never brings them down.
Juwan keeps criticism in house. He sticks ferociously to the mantra to improve every day, to fix it if it's broken. So much so that his interviews can be boring. He will accept responsibility for his own actions, as he did after his ejection against Maryland. The important thing is that his team buys into the mantras. You can have great schemes that don't work if the team doesn't work to make it happen. It's one of the great pleasures of this season to see the fire and the buy in. Juwan urging the bench to cheer on the team on the floor and acknowledging the crowd. Juwan is one of a kind. He's genuine, loves Michigan and has his players' backs. Love the guy no matter what happens.
