According to a report from 247Sports, Michigan senior Jace Howard has entered the transfer portal after five seasons with the Wolverines:
After five seasons with the Michigan Wolverines , senior guard Jace Howard has entered the transfer portal, according to Travis Branham of 247Sports. Howard posted his farewell message to the university on Instagram over the weekend.
Howard first joined the Wolverines in 2020-21, back when his father Juwan Howard was leading the program. He got an extra year of eligibility for that COVID year. He could get another year if he gets a medical redshirt after playing in just five games this past season.
Appearing in 70 games across five seasons, Howard averaged 1.4 points, mostly playing in garbage time. He said before this season that despite the coaching change and how his father’s tenure ended , staying at Michigan was a no-brainer for him.
“As soon as coach May got hired, he texted me like 40 minutes (after the news was released) and I thought that was pretty big,” Howard said. “How excited he was to be here, how excited he was to coach me if that’s what I wanted to do. Coach Akeem (Miskdeen) and Coach May were the first coaches to recruit me out of high school.”
Howard was previously Michigan’s longest-tenured player, but that honor now belongs to redshirt junior forward Will Tschetter.
There’s not a whole lot of tape of Howard out there. Aside from a few defensive possessions from a few seasons ago, he played little to no meaningful basketball at Ann Arbor. And his name will be linked to the tumultuous ending of head trainer Jon Sanderson’s Michigan tenure, so that off-court incident may factor into his perceived value.
Howard grew up in Miami with his dad playing and coaching for the Heat, so perhaps he plays at a smaller school near there. I did always feel bad for him in the few times he was made available to the media, because most of the questions he received were about his dad and his brother, Jett, who is currently in the NBA. He’s clearly mature enough to know why that’s the case, but I always enjoyed his candor.
While it’s unclear how much he’ll contribute on the court this coming season, I still stand by my take from 2023 — Howard is clearly intelligent, well-spoken and loves basketball. Because of this, I think coaching college basketball is in his future.