Jace Howard, son of former basketball player Juwan Howard, currently resides as a member of the Michigan Wolverines. Many of you might be unfamiliar with Jace or his father at Michigan, but there’s a lot to like about them both from a coaching and playing standpoint. Here we are going to catch you up on everything you need to know about Jace Howard and what he’s been able to accomplish so far on the Wolverines.
Freshman Season
Jace Howard didn’t really have that explosive of a freshman season with the Michigan Wolverines.
Throughout the entire year, he was able to appear in 11 games off the bench. However, he never really got much time on the floor. He posted nine different games of playing three plus minutes, but his season high never crossed the four-minute mark in a single game.
Even in his debut against Ball State, Howard appeared onto the court for just three minutes of action. Out of all these little appearances here and there, Jace was able to put up a total of 11 points.
This equates to him scoring just 1.1 points per game for the Wolverines. These aren’t really the stats you want to see even if he wasn’t out there long.
Other stats that are important to note was that he grabbed four defensive rebounds in total and his season high in points was at three when he hit a three-pointer against Minnesota.
Sophomore Season
His most recent season with Michigan saw him have pretty similar stats. However, he was able to mask that with some career highs in varying categories.
He appeared in 14 games off the bench, three higher than the previous season. He averaged 4.5 minutes a game and had six different outings which saw him play over five minutes.
In fact, he even posted a career high in minutes at 15 when the team went up against Illinois.
The scoring stayed identical though. He scored a total of 16 points despite having increased action on the floor and once again averaged a measly 1.1 points per game. He scored in seven games to get to this point including a five-point outing against Maryland which went down as his career high.
Rebound wise, he hauled in seven of them with four being marked down as offensive.
He also had a block, assist and steal marked down for him for the first time in his sophomore campaign.
Jace Howard highlights
Team Bio For Howard
Michigan listed a few things about Jace Howard on their website and had some interesting things to say about him there.
First off, they listed that he is one of those strong, high-energy types of players that always thrives on the defensive end when called upon.
Simply put, it’s a skillset that every NBA team would absolutely LOVE to draft if given the opportunity. Michigan also states that he’s an outspoken leader of this Wolverines team despite not getting onto the court much, which really goes to show how stellar his leadership abilities are.
He likely picked up this reputation for being a leader because of his father. His dad, U-M coach Juwan Howard, probably taught him up on everything required of him to be able to lead a team to greatness.
Then finally, they cap off his bio with the statement, “Strong basketball IQ; grew up around the game.”
This is exactly what we just talked about with his father being a coach for another basketball squad. Jace grew up around the sport and learned to play it the right way at a young age. He doesn’t often rush his shots and play sloppy basketball.
It’s a calm and methodical approach when he’s out on the court. This is likely the reason why he’s never really scoring much, because he’d rather just let the game come to him instead of forcing jumpers to try and look better statistically.
NBA Draft?
As it currently stands, there doesn’t appear to be any indication that Jace Howard is planning on diving into the NBA Draft.
This is likely because some sources list him as eligible for declaring in 2025. Although, it could also mean that he has until 2025 to officially declare or try and request a redshirt season.
Regardless, Howard plans to continue to develop with his father and eventually his brother Jett on the Michigan Wolverines before trying to dive in deep to the pros.
This is likely in his best interest anyways, as the lack of playing time and scoring potential would drive NBA teams away even with his high motor on the floor.
The hopes and expectations are that he’s going to see more playing time in 2022-23 and beyond.
Hopefully Jace is able to take this opportunity and run with it as best as possible. Otherwise, it’s going to be awfully difficult to mask his 1.1 point per game average if he gets increased minutes.
Last Full Season Before College
His senior year of high school saw him get full minutes out there on the court. It was the last time we really got to see what he can do when given the keys to the offense. He didn’t disappoint back then. He averaged 10.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists while pushing his team to a 19-7 record and a playoff spot that year.
He dropped his first 20 plus point game that year and even had 15 double digit scoring outings along the way. The only downside was that we were robbed of extra time from Jace during this year.
The postseason that his team made it into wound up getting completely cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic kicking off around that time. Either way though, Jace Howard put up incredibly good stats back during his senior year of high school and he’s certainly going to be looking to translate that forward next year.
The potential is there, it’s just all about putting the right pieces of the puzzle together to form the final outcome.
