Juwan Howard Jr. had made his departure from the Western Michigan basketball program official.
According to Graham Couch of the Kalamazoo Gazette, Howard Jr., will transfer to the University of Detroit Mercy. Detroit is the same school in which LaMarcus Lowe, another highly touted former WMU basketball freshman transferred to following the 2008-09 season.
Western Michigan announced on September 1st that Howard Jr. would be leaving the program while Broncos’ head coach Steve Hawkins called his (Howard) decision to leave a private matter.
“Didn’t really see it coming,” Hawkins said of Howard landing at Detroit. “I still stand behind Juwan, that’s the main thing. I didn’t know where he would end up. We gave him his release, which is a normal release, which means he can’t go to a MAC school.
“I talked to his mom throughout and gave her my opinions on different places that he potentially would be at, including us. With what he was going through, I gave her my opinions throughout the whole thing. I knew that his family would probably feel like it was in his best interest to stay close to home.
“I had high hopes for him coming back, would have loved to have him back, great kid, love him to death, love the family, nothing but good things to say about all of them, but especially, if this was going to be a decision that was made sooner rather than later, I didn’t think it’d work to come back to Western.”
Hawkins however was none too pleased with the Titans basketball program and their coaching staff with the bad blood between the two programs continuing to flow.
After Lowe left WMU for Detroit, Hawkins decided not to renew the Broncos’ long-running series with the Titans after the current contract expires following this season’s game at Calihan Hall.
According to Couch, Howard worked out with various members of the Titans basketball program while he was home during the summer.
Hawkins also declined to comment whether or not he believed the Titans coaching staff were tampering with Western.
Ref: Kalamazoo Gazette
