You know this by now, just like the players knew it at the time. Michigan basketball was picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten this season. The Wolverines wound up finishing first. They were unranked in the top 25 in December. They wound up finishing No. 4.
A lot of people people were wrong about this team, which faces UCLA Tuesday night for a spot in the Final Four. At least one person was right: former Wake Forest coach Danny Manning.
"I'm gonna go back and brag a little bit here. When I was working with ESPN earlier this year I picked Michigan to win the Big Ten, and a lot of people kind of gave me that 'You don't know what you're talking about' look. I just thought that the talent they had, Hunter Dickinson coming in, Chaundee Brown coming in could give that team a big lift," Manning said Tuesday on the Stoney & Jansen Show.
Manning knew what Michigan was getting in Brown, a highly-coveted transfer. He recruited Brown to Wake Forest and coached him for three seasons. He also knew what Brown was getting in his new head coach. Manning was teammates with Juwan Howard in the NBA and remains friends with him to this day.
"Juwan has done a terrific job of incorporating Chaundee's skillset into that team," Manning said. "Chaundee comes in and plays aggressive, plays confidently and he is a big piece of this Michigan ball team. He's a terrific young man. He's someone that I enjoyed being around."
Brown hasn't had the same role at Michigan that he had at Wake Forest, where he was a three-year starter. He's spent this season coming off the bench. But his value to the Wolverines has grown in the NCAA Tournament in the absence of Isaiah Livers. They wouldn't have survived the second round without Browns' 21 points against LSU. He added another 12 in their Sweet 16 win over Florida State.
"He's done a tremendous job of coming off the bench and being the sixth man for Michigan, playing really well now that Livers is out," said Manning, a former Sixth Man of the Year in the NBA. "Happy to see him have the success that he's having and to know that we had a little bit to do with it in helping him develop and get prepared on this journey."
Just as Manning wasn't caught off guard by Michigan this season, nor has he been surprised by Howard's early success at his alma mater.
"Juwan was a teammate, Juwan is a friend and I know how talented of a player he was, I know how smart of a player he was and the understanding of the game that he has. So for me, what he's done is not a surprise," Manning said. "I think it surprised a lot of other people just because they didn't know who Juwan Howard was as a man and as a person.
"He's a quality dude, first and foremost, and he's setting a great example of how you carry yourself. His guys get to see that and get a chance to emulate that day in and day out, not just on the basketball court. I'm talking about in life. Because at the end of the day, all coaches, especially at the collegiate level, are preparing their young people for life."
