Juwan Howard addresses pause, return to practice

The Michigan basketball team returned to the practice court on Sunday for 90 minutes, following a two-week COVID-19 shutdown. Juwan Howard said Monday night on the Inside Michigan Basketball radio show that first practice was merely conditioning, since the team has been essentially under quarantine for 14 days.

“Everything that we do is on the floor, just pertaining to, so we get back to some basketball playing shape,” Howard said. “It’s not gonna happen overnight. It’s a process, it’s gonna take time, but it’s nothing like playing 5-on-5 and that’s gonna be a part of our conditioning as well so you can (get) rhythm back. And that’s very important.”

The problem facing Michigan right now, though, is a lack of time. The Wolverines’ scheduled contest against Illinois for Thursday was postponed, but they’ll return on Sunday against Wisconsin. It’s unclear as of now how, or if, they’ll attempt to make up the five games that were postponed as a result of the pause. Doing so in full would require playing 11 games in less than a month, as the Big Ten Tournament is scheduled to start on March 10.

Howard didn’t have an answer on the schedule, saying Michigan would prepare for whoever is in front of it. His goal right now is simply getting everyone back in shape as fast as possible.