Video & Analysis: Juwan Howard Picking Up The Pieces After Two-Loss Week

Juwan Howard is facing the first two-game losing streak of his young career, and he spoke about the morale of his team following a 71-70 loss to Oregon.

Michigan fell 71-62 at Illinois Wednesday and dropped Saturday's 71-70 overtime thriller to Oregon. It probably won't mean much to Juwan Howard that his team lost games to Kenpom.com's No. 37 and No. 11 teams. Losses are losses, and they can mentally wear a team down, as Howard noted in his press conference. 

The good news for Michigan is it should go into 2020 with a two-game winning streak, welcoming Presbyterian and UMass Lowell in the next two weeks. The bad news is the Wolverines have to wait a week, until next Saturday, to get this bitter taste out of their mouths, and then have another eight days before their battle with Lowell. 

In the meantime, Howard will have a lot of interesting questions to ponder - like how he gets Brandon Johns Jr., more meaningful playing time and if it comes at the expense of someone like senior center Jon Teske? Or whether he can re-energize Teske into the player he was down in the Bahamas? He also has to get Zavier Simpson to play more under control, and must continue to foster the confidence of Isaiah Livers, Franz Wagner and David DeJulius. 

In other words, Howard won't just be sitting on his hands waiting for a cupcake opponent to arrive in Ann Arbor next weekend.