The Michigan Wolverines took care of business on their home court tonight, defeating their in-state rival Michigan State Spartans by a 69-50 final score and officially clinching the Big Ten.
It was their 1st Big Ten title since 2014 and their second outright Big Ten title since 1986.
Head coach Juwan Howard has certainly made his mark with the Wolverines in his second year on the job after replacing John Beilein, the winningest coach in team history.
How were they able to handle the challenges of a season that was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as playing without fans in the stands?
“To start with your first question, throughout the season, it’s been a very challenging time to play basketball,” Howard said. “During a pandemic, where you don’t have your Maize Rage student section, you don’t have your family section along, as well as all the alumni and all the Michigan fans that come out to support the program. Now that we’ve had, recently, our families have been able to come to the games to support, it’s been beautiful to have them in the building. Family is there to support family. Our guys have been amazing throughout the year of not making excuses.
Fortunately enough, we have 17 guys, no matter if you’re home or on the road, that we all have to be in the trenches to support one another. And give credit to our guys that are on the bench of finding energy to really be there to support their teammates and their brothers.”
Howard then went on to describe what winning the Big Ten means to him personally and to the team.
“It means a lot, it really does,” he said. “It’s gratifying to go out here during what we all have dealt with during this pandemic, very challenging times. But we didn’t make excuses, we rolled up our sleeves, figured it out along the way. A lot of things didn’t go our way, but we didn’t make excuses for it. We continued to keep grinding and grinding. Some would say, and I agree, this is the toughest conference in college basketball night in, night out. We’re always going to get every team’s best, just like they’ll get our best. We were fortunate enough to win a Big Ten championship in the regular season. It’s hard doing that, it’s so hard. And I remember as a player, it was very hard for us. So to do it this year, it’s a beautiful moment. We’re going to really enjoy it today, enjoy it tomorrow, then we’re gonna come in here on Saturday and get ready for practice to play Michigan State on Sunday.”
– – Quotes via Zack Shaw of 247Sports LInk – –
