The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Monday, August 31, 2020 — 17

Michigan 
men’s 
basketball 

coach Juwan Howard said that 
he will stay at Michigan in a 
statement responding to a report 
from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski 
that Howard has been gaining 
traction in NBA front offices as a 
potential head coaching candidate.

“While I am flattered, and know 

it will more than likely happen 
again, I am not exploring, seeking 
or listening,” Howard said. “I am 
the head coach at the University of 
Michigan.”

The NBA buzz surrounding 

Howard is not surprising; he 
interviewed for coaching positions 
with the Cleveland Cavaliers and 
the Los Angeles Lakers before 
taking the job at Michigan. His 
strong 19-year stint as a player and 
successful transition into assistant 
coaching in the NBA both make 
him a strong candidate. 

This already-impressive resume 

was likely only bolstered in the 
eyes of front-office executives by 

Howard’s impressive first year 
at Michigan. Howard showed 
level-headed – but still animated 
– leadership over the course of a 
season that saw junior forward 
and top scorer Isaiah Livers 
struggle with lingering injuries, 
a suspension of star senior point 
guard 
Zavier 
Simpson, 
and 

postseason cancellations due to 
the coronavirus. Despite these 
and other significant roadblocks, 
Howard led the Wolverines to a 
solid 19-12 overall record.

But Howard’s decision to stay 

in Ann Arbor is also somewhat 
unsurprising. He was visibly 
emotional in the opening press 
conference when his hire was 
announced, 
especially 
when 

his old jersey was brought out. 
He has moved his family to the 
Ann Arbor area, put his younger 
children in schools in the area, 
and brought his son Jace onto the 
team with a scholarship. 

“This is where my focus is,” 

said Howard. “We have goals, 
dreams, and championships to 
win.”

ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Juwan Howard confirmed his commitment to Michigan amid NBA rumors.

Juwan Howard to stay 
at Michigan: ‘This is 
where my focus is’

Players feel voices weren’t heard in postponement

Carlo Kemp isn’t on social media, 

so he didn’t see the petition Ohio 
State quarterback Justin Fields 
circulated this week. Signed by 
281,000 people as of Wednesday 
afternoon, it asks the Big Ten to 
reinstate the fall football season. 
Told about it, Kemp had a question.

“Where is it?”
“There’s people that want to 

play and there are people that are 
willing to accept or take on the risk 
we talked about being able to play,” 
Kemp, a fifth-year defensive tackle, 
said. “However many votes it has, it 
doesn’t matter, but it shows you that 
athletes want to play and people 
want to play football. Hearing and 
listening to that, I do think there’s a 
way this could have been done.”

In a lot of ways, that sums up the 

criticism many players, parents and 
coaches have for the Big Ten right 
now. They want to play. And they 
feel their voices weren’t heard in 
the process.

The Big Ten isn’t standing 

alone in calling things off — the 
majority of the FBS has, and the 
FCS schedule has been reduced 
to a handful of guarantee games. 
But it is the only conference that’s 
suffered a complete, unmitigated 
public relations disaster because of 
its decision. The timing, just days 
after a conference-only schedule 
was released, was poor. The 
reasoning wasn’t explained clearly. 
It’s been over a week and it’s still 
unclear whether school presidents 
actually took a formal vote, and if so, 
what the count was — not just to the 
public, but to the conference’s own 
athletic directors.

“If 
you’re 
going 
to 
affect 

someone’s livelihood, I think it’s 
really important that you hear from 
them,” Kemp said. “Personally, I do 
think we should’ve been heard. I 
think there were some great efforts 
to get that done. I think people did 
go to good lengths to hear from 
their student athletes. But it’s just 
the tip and you’re hoping that more 
can be done in the future. 

“Do student athletes want to 

play, do they not want to play, and 
I think that should really influence 
the decision a little bit more. And 
then hearing how we feel right now 
is where I go back to this limbo that 
we’re in. The decision was made 
and we’re just expected to go along 
with it. A lot of things change once 
you do that, and I don’t think that 
was really taken into consideration 
how a lot of this stuff gets affected 
going forward.”

Student-athletes 
aren’t 
paid, 

but no season means they won’t 
have a chance to show their skills 
to NFL teams. It means guys who 
weren’t on the NFL radar won’t get 
a chance to put themselves there. As 
Heisman winner and No. 1 overall 
pick Joe Burrow tweeted, that 
would have been him a year ago.

When coach Jim Harbaugh 

broke the news to the team that 
the season had been postponed, 
some players cried, fifth-year senior 
tight end Nick Eubanks said. Others 
just thought about what’s next — a 
question that still doesn’t have an 

answer.

The Big Ten might try to play a 

spring season, but there’s been no 
plan developed — let alone released 
— as of yet. To the outside world, it 
looks like the conference didn’t plan 
for the possibility of a cancellation 
until it actually made the decision 
to cancel.

Speaking with reporters on 

Wednesday, Eubanks and Kemp 
both made the same points as 
Harbaugh did last week in a 
statement advocating for a fall 
season. Michigan followed the 
protocols, had low rates of infection 
and felt they could have continued 
to do so during the season. Whether 
it would have withstood the return 
of students to campus, and whether 
other schools would have been as 
successful, is unclear. They would 
have liked the chance to find out.

“Honestly I think we could’ve did 

the same thing for our conference 
as well as other conferences,” 
Eubanks said. “It’s quite frustrating. 
A lot of guys had a lot riding on this 
season coming up. Just for it to get 
shut down, it really hurts a lot of 
teammates and players.”

It hasn’t quite hit Kemp yet, the 

idea that while he’s on his couch 
during Saturdays this fall, he might 
be watching other college football 
games. The idea that guys might 
get a season while he doesn’t. He’s 
just trying to work on his game with 
the limitations in place, coming into 
Schembechler Hall and practicing 
whenever allowed.

“I hope all the information 

is being distributed and talked 
about throughout the conferences, 
not just for football reasons, but 
for safety,” Kemp said. “If we’ve 
canceled, you want to make sure 
that the remaining players in the 
other three conferences are as safe, 
as well.”

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Fifth-year senior Carlo Kemp is frustrated by the Big Ten’s decision to cancel fall sports without consulting players.

ETHAN SEARS

Managing Sports Editor

How the Michigan men’s soccer 

team found out its season was over

Tuesday morning marked a 

long-awaited return to normalcy 
for the Michigan men’s soccer 
team. 

Players 
and 
coaches 
took 

the pitch for the first full-team 
training session of the summer. 
Masks were worn and safety 
measures followed. Smiles were 
contagious. 

Even 
amid 
a 
particularly 

ominous backdrop — their fall 
season rumored to be teetering 
on the brink of cancellation — the 
team left practice upbeat. 

“Being together, it was very 

much missed,” coach Chaka Daley 
said. “Just being back, seeing 
each other, having a bit of banter, 
watching guys compete and play 
soccer, that’s what we’ve missed 
over the last five months.”

At 5:30, the team gathered 

again. The morning’s joy had 
turned into melancholy, grins 
wiped 
away 
by 
long 
faces. 

Daley briefed his players on the 
afternoon’s news — due to the 
unrelenting COVID-19 pandemic, 
the Big Ten had postponed all fall 
sports. 

A hush descended over the 

team. The reality set in. One 
precious morning — that would 
be it. 

“It’s really hard right now,” 

senior 
forward 
Mohammed 

Zakyi said. “There’s so many 
uncertainties. I’m just trying to 
keep my head up and not sulk 
about all this.”

The Big Ten’s decision leaves 

Zakyi and his teammates in limbo. 

Question marks are pressing and 
copious. Answers, largely absent. 

“Seniors, we don’t even know 

if we have another year left,” 
Zakyi said. “I have so much stuff 
to figure out, with my eligibility, 
with my visa, with everything. 
What options come after this 
year? I aspire to go to the MLS, but 
I don’t know if there’s going to be a 
draft, if I’ll get to train here, if we’ll 
have a season. It’s just really hard.”

Up 
until 
Tuesday’s 
coup 

de grace, the team remained 
optimistic that a fall season could 
safely take place. 

Closely adhering to University 

guidelines, players filtered back to 
campus the first week of August 
to prepare for the season. Players 
followed the 14-day pre-report 
risk assessment prior to their 
return and complied with the six-
day resocilization period, which 
involved a series of tests and 
health screenings. 

Monday, the team met as one 

for the first time. Tuesday was 
meant to kickstart the first week 
of preparation for the fall slate. But 
with the pandemic still at large, 
the Big Ten decided that college 
athletics weren’t feasible. 

“Obviously, 
we’re 

disappointed,” Daley said. “No 
competitive 
student-athlete 
is 

going to take this news well. I 
do know that they all had a very 
good sense of realism, going into 
it understanding that we are in a 
global pandemic and that we’re 
fortunate just to be back.

“We just didn’t know the 

timeliness of this, that it would’ve 
happened as quickly as it did 
when we started our preseason. 

We were hopeful to have a little 
bit more time to see if things 
could work, but all the medical 
professionals, our University, our 
Athletic Department and the Big 
Ten made a decision that’s best for 
all the student-athletes.”

The team will continue to meet 

on a regular basis, likely a mixture 
of in-person training, scheduled 
workouts and Zoom calls, Daley 
said. 

As per a potential season, all 

eyes turn toward the spring — 
a scenario not without its own 
issues. 

“I don’t know how it would 

work because there are so many 
other sports going on,” Zakyi 
said. “If you add all the fall 
sports to that, it could get pretty 
overwhelming.”

The spring, though, presents 

itself as the only option for a 
season. Putting the uncertainty of 
the situation aside, Daley knows 
his team would embrace the idea. 

“If we can compete this 

academic year, I’m sure the 
student-athletes would welcome 
the challenge and enjoy it,” Daley 
said. “And there are challenges 
with everything now. Playing 
in the fall, playing in the spring. 
You look at the spring sports, they 
already lost a season last year.

“Hopefully, we get through 

the other side of this in a positive 
way. And if we’re afforded the 
opportunity to play in the spring, 
our players will be motivated, 
hungry and ready to go.”

“We don’t know what’s going 

to happen,” Zakyi said. “But it 
would just be great to have the 
opportunity to play again.”

JARED GREENSPAN

Daily Sports Writer

MILES MACKLIN/Daily

The Michigan men’s soccer team’s fall season was postponed last week due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michigan women’s soccer team 
devastated by canceled season

The 
decision 
was 
highly 

anticipated and largely expected. 
But, nonetheless, it was met with 
heartbreak and devastation. 

Coming off one of the best 

seasons in recent history, the 
Michigan women’s soccer team 
was poised for another stellar 
season. But, like the rest of the 
college sports world, that chance 
at redemption will be put on hold 
until at least the spring as the Big 
Ten announced that all fall sports 
would be postponed.

“I think what’s one of the 

things that has been the biggest 
disappointment is the excitement 
that this whole team had around 
this upcoming fall,” Michigan 
head coach Jennifer Klein said. 
“(We know) what this team 
would be able to accomplish and 
(we) really wanted to get out 
there and get tested and see if 
we could raise the level of our 
program.”

Regardless, 
the 
team 

acknowledges 
that 
this 
is 

bigger than sports, however 
tough it is to accept the season’s 
postponement.

No 
one 
has 
experienced 

anything 
of 
this 
magnitude 

before — it’s beyond even a 
season-ending injury.

“Injuries are easier,” senior 

goalkeeper Hillary Beal said. 
“You go through them and 
there’s kind of an endpoint and 
you 
determine 
when 
you’re 

allowed to return to play. But 
this is (different) because you 
don’t know when there’s an end 

(in) sight and you don’t know 
when you’re going to have the 
opportunity to take the field 
again and start competing.” 

The 
Wolverines 
had 
just 

finished their first week of 
practice 
back 
together 
after 

a lengthy off-season and the 
team picked up right where 
they left off last season in 
terms of competitiveness and 
togetherness with the team. 

“There was a lot of great energy 

and just appreciation for being 
back together as a team,” Klein 
said. “(We) really had optimism 
and hope that we would be able to 
pull a season off in the fall. ... But 
it just didn’t make sense for us to 
move forward in that way.”

Now, with the season officially 

postponed, the focus will shift 
from preparing for competition 
to 
developing 
the 
freshman 

class, focusing on the future and 
keeping the morale of the team 
high. Klein sees this challenging 
time as a defining moment for the 
future of the program. 

Each player is affected in a 

different manner, but no group 
of players is affected as much 
as the senior class. The seniors 
recognize that they can use this 
time to develop the freshman 
class and, although they may 
have 
finished 
their 
careers, 

they can impact the future. 
Beal sees a silver lining in this 
unprecedented situation. 

“For now, we get to be around 

each other,” Beal said. “I think 
it’s more gratitude and just being 
thankful for the opportunities we 
get to have together as a team.”

As a fall sport, Michigan is 

used to jumping straight into the 
season without having much time 
to adjust to a new team. The new 
extended offseason has its pros 
and cons. 

“It does give us more time to 

prepare and to reach those goals,” 
sophomore 
forward 
Danielle 

Wolfe said. “Also having that much 
time you’re prone more to being 
relaxed and falling back. (But), 
this team, everyone has their eye 
on the prize and everyone knows 
what they want.”

Every college athlete is going 

through 
a 
similar 
range 
of 

emotions, but Wolfe is especially 
proud to be a part of this team 
during this time. 

“Going through this together 

with them is like a blessing for all 
of us,” Wolfe said. “The good and 
bad, I think that’s a big part of 
being a part of this team.”

For Klein, it is essential during 

this time that the team stay 
focused on what they have worked 
on in terms of accountability and 
owning your development. 

“Dealing 
with 
adversity, 

dealing with sudden change, all 
those things existed at different 
points of our life,” Klein said. “I 
think everybody has a time in their 
life where they look and the path 
in front of you isn’t clear, but you 
have to trust the process and trust 
the people around you that you’re 
going to eventually see the end.

“(You have to) stay optimistic 

and positive that it will turn out. 
It might not look exactly like you 
thought it would, but it’s going 
to have to. There’s going to be 
something that is going to be 
positive at the end.”

LILY ISRAEL

Daily Sports Writer

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Michigan coach Jennifer Klein was excited about the Wolverines’ upcoming season before it was postponed.

