By the sound of it, the Big Ten office is soon going to have a decision to make.
Juwan Howard didn’t come out and say playing 20 league games wasn’t possible for Michigan. That’s not in his character. But he did offer about as strong a stance as he ever will.
“That would be very challenging,” Howard said of playing a full schedule. “It would be challenging on a lot of levels. Let’s start with school. We’d miss a ton of classes. Let’s also look at the mental health standpoint. I’m an open book. This is our guys’ team and their schedule and also their college experience. Would they want to play 11 games in 22 days?
“And then from a health standpoint, I’m not sure if it would be smart because of the long layoff. And rushing and playing that many games in a short amount of time does not give the human body time to recover, which at the end of the day, we’re not machines, we’re humans. And that’s not the type of pressure that I want to place on our student-athletes at the time.
“Unfortunately, this is a very uncomfortable year, crazy times that we’re all dealing with, we’re pivoting in different directions but at the end of the day, we’ve got to be smart. If the main thing is about our health and safety, let’s make sure that’s the main thing. Is it smart to play that many games in that many days?”
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