In a statement released on Friday night, Warde Manuel, the athletic director of Michigan, said that Howard will not be disciplined for an alleged altercation he had earlier this month. Howard is now back to his full potential as the team’s head coach as a result.
“The return of our usual coaching structure comes after a review of an incident involving several individuals during a team practice last week,” said Manuel, per MassLive.com. “Based on a thorough internal review, nothing was found to warrant disciplinary action for anyone involved. As such, we will move forward with a focus on our team and our season.”
Howard had not coached for Michigan all season after undergoing a heart procedure in September. Associate head coach Phil Martelli had coached the team for the first ten games of the season, but Howard formally resumed his duties Saturday versus Eastern Michigan (an 83-66 win for the Wolverines).
Michigan had opened up an investigation into the alleged incident involving Howard and longtime team strength coach Jon Sanderson. A confrontation was said to have taken place between the two on Dec. 7 and was supposedly over Howard’s son Jace, a junior guard on the team who has not played at all this season due to a knee injury. You can read the full details here.
Jace Howard told the Detroit Free Press this weekend that the incident was just a “misunderstanding.”
The alleged confrontation came with some additional concerns because of Howard’s 2022 handshake line confrontation, which made him subject to a zero-tolerance policy from the university. But Howard has been cleared by Michigan’s internal investigation and has now officially kicked off his fifth season in charge of the team.
