Michigan announced on Friday that it has parted ways with head men’s basketball coach Juwan Howard after five seasons at the helm. The move comes on the heels of an abysmal 8-24 campaign for the Wolverines where they finished last in the Big Ten.
Howard returned to his alma mater in 2019 to much fan fare as it marked a major moment of the program re-establishing ties with the famed “Fab 5”. His tenure got off to a good start as he led the Wolverines to an Elite Eight appearance in 2021 and a Sweet 16 in 2022. However, UM experienced a rapid decline the following two seasons as a middling 18-16 NIT campaign in 2023 was followed up with an extremely poor performance this year that got him ousted from the job.
Michigan will now search for a new head coach and whoever takes over will walk into a manageable situation that can be turned around very quickly. The Wolverines have the money and resources to compete at the very top of the Big Ten and have shown the capability of reaching the Final Four in recent history.
Below, we’ll take a crack at some potential candidates the leadership at Michigan could target in the coming weeks.
Michigan coaching candidates
Brian Dutcher, San Diego State head coach
San Diego State has had one of the most stable head coaching positions in the country, with only Steve Fisher and Dutch coaching the Aztecs in the 21st Century. In his seventh season at SDSU, Dutcher is coming off an appearance in the national championship game last year.
If the 64-year-old would ever leave the idyllic paradise of America’s Finest City, this would be one of the few jobs that could do it. He’s a Michigan native, was an assistant under Fisher for nine years at UM, and is a Big Ten grad himself from Minnesota.
Dusty May, Florida Atlantic head coach
The guy every high-major wants, including Ohio State, May will have his pick of whatever job he’d like this cycle. His ability to not only get Florida Atlantic (again, FLORIDA ATLANTIC) to the Final Four and then run it back as an easy at-large team in 2024 shows he can build something sustainable.
But is Michigan the most appealing job out there? May has his choice, but he might want to do something in this cycle because he’s only making $1.25 million per year at FAU, and might be able to command four times that on the open market.
T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State head coach
Otzelberger has established himself as one of the rising coaching commodities of the sport over the last decade and should be a candidate for this high profile job. A Milwaukee native, he was able to lead South Dakota State to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in his first two years as a head coach.
After a brief stint at UNLV, he was able to instantly turn Iowa State around, taking a team that had won just two games the year prior to the Sweet 16 in 2022. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Ann Arbor brass gave him a call.
Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska head coach
The Mayor had to leave Iowa State to find success, but he’s turned Nebraska into a winner that’s 22-9 and on the way to the NCAA Tournament in his fifth season. Michigan is certainly a better Big Ten job, but Hoiberg might be tougher to get as Nebraska seems committed to basketball in a way they haven’t been previously.
Mick Cronin, UCLA head coach
UCLA’s head coach has plenty of Midwest ties, and a disaster of a UCLA season might mean an amicable parting of ways might be the best move for all parties. The Bruins were 16-17 in 2024, and with plenty of talent that seemed checked out. After a Covid-induced Final Four run behind Johnny Juzang and Jaime Jaquez Jr. in 2021, a pair of flameouts in the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament since set the table for the serious problems in Westwood currently.
If Cronin’s hard-charging, defensive style isn’t a fit in SoCal, he had some success in 13 seasons at Cincinnati from 2007-19. He went to nine-straight NCAA’s before leaving the Bearcats, though only got past the first weekend of NCAA’s once in 2012.