Juwan Howard doesn’t just belong on Michigan’s all-time list. He belongs near the top of it.
The fourth member of the Fab Five lands at No. 3 in the Wolverines’ ranking of the best men’s basketball players since the 1989 national championship, and his place is easy to justify. Howard was the first commitment in the class that changed college basketball, and the steady force who helped make that group more than just a collection of gifted freshmen. Even with a rough run as Michigan’s head coach later on, his name stays linked to one of the program’s defining eras.
Howard’s role started before the Fab Five ever fully took shape. As a high schooler, he helped recruit Jalen Rose, Ray Jackson, Jimmy King and Chris Webber to Ann Arbor.
That mattered because Michigan became the first team to start five freshmen, four of them McDonald’s All-Americans, in an era before one-and-done reshaped the sport. The style, the winning and the cultural force of that team didn’t just move college basketball forward - it changed the game.
Webber brought the most talent. Rose had the biggest personality. Howard was the one who kept things steady.
From the start, he did the hard stuff. As a freshman, Howard averaged 11.1 points and 6.2 rebounds while starting 31 of 34 games.
With Webber and Rose drawing the attention, Howard became the guy handling a lot of the dirty work, especially on defense. He was the player opponents hated dealing with.
Michigan’s rise came fast once all five freshmen were in the starting lineup. The Wolverines were 13-5 before that group was fully in place, then went 12-4 after, and that came against much stronger competition as they pushed toward the first of back-to-back national title game trips. Seeded sixth in the NCAA Tournament, Michigan knocked off Ohio State - a team that had beaten them by double digits twice in the regular season - and reached the Final Four.
That first season was the launchpad. The next one was the explosion.
Michigan opened 1992-93 as the No. 1 team in the country, and Howard took another jump. He shot better than 50 percent from the field, averaged 14.6 points and 7.4 rebounds, and earned second-team All-Big Ten honors. The Wolverines finished second in the conference to Indiana, which went 17-1 in league play behind National Player of the Year Calbert Cheaney, but still grabbed a No. 1 seed in the West Region.
Howard delivered from there. He opened the tournament with 16 points and 10 rebounds against Coastal Carolina, then followed with another double-double - 17 points and 10 boards - against George Washington in the Sweet Sixteen.
His biggest moment in that run came against Kentucky in the Final Four, when Michigan beat Jamal Mashburn’s team 81-78. Mashburn finished with 26 points, but he didn’t make a field goal over the final 12:36 of regulation and eventually fouled out in overtime.
Howard answered with 17 points in the win.
If sophomore year showed his value, junior year showed his ceiling.
Howard became Michigan’s best player, and he put up the numbers to prove it: 20.8 points and nine rebounds per game while shooting 55.6 percent from the floor. In what was described as maybe the most physical era of Big Ten basketball, he was a force. He earned unanimous first-team All-Big Ten honors and AP All-American recognition.
Then came the final run, and Howard saved his best basketball for last. Michigan nearly stumbled against Pepperdine in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, but Howard carried the load with 28 points on 12-of-17 shooting, nine rebounds and four steals.
Against Texas in the second round, he put together the best game of his career: 34 points and 18 rebounds. He kept rolling with 24 points and 10 rebounds against Maryland in the Sweet Sixteen, then finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds in his final game, a loss to No.
1 Arkansas.
By the end of that stretch, Howard had piled up 116 points and 51 rebounds over four games and earned West Region All-Tournament Team honors. That kind of finish locked in his place in Michigan history.
Howard’s coaching stint may not have gone the way anyone wanted, but it doesn’t erase what he was as a player or what he meant to the Fab Five. He was the glue, the interior presence, the defender who did the work that made everything else click. And when it was his turn to carry the Wolverines, he did exactly that.
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