Michigan Basketball: 11 candidates to replace Juwan Howard as Head Coach

Pat Kelsey

There has been no shortage of excitement for Michigan basketball in recent years, both in the good way and the bad way. That’s not necessarily a knock on Howard, who did have two deep Tournament runs earlier in his tenure. Michigan wants to bring someone in who can inspire and rebuild the excitement for this program and it’s hard to find many people more energized than Kelsey.

Born in Cincinnati, Kelsey played point guard at Xavier and got early coaching experience under the late Skip Prosser, his college coach. After jumping between Xavier and Wake Forest, his head coaching career began with a successful 9-year run at Winthrop. After a few Big South titles with those Eagles, he was lured to Charleston in 2021 where he’s had the best success of his career. Last year’s team won 31 games while this year’s will be back in the Big Dance for a second consecutive season.

The bottom line is that Kelsey is a winner who has recharged and rebuilt success at two different programs. The issue is that neither program was exactly at a high level, and winning in the Big South and CAA is much different than in the Big Ten. Kelsey would bring energy to Ann Arbor and will one day make a fantastic power conference head coach, it’s all about when he wants to make that move. Expect other options to be considered before him, but he wouldn’t be a bad hire at all.