The Big Ten has always been considered a physical conference but no one expected a heavyweight fight to break out at the end of Wisconsin’s 77-63 victory over Michigan at Madison.
But Michigan coach Juwan Howard set off a brawl between players from the two teams when he threw a punch at Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft’s face.
Wisconsin coach Greg Gard stopped Howard in the handshake line, leading to the two men exchanging words before being surrounded by a few players and coaches. Howard put his finger in Gard’s face and grabbed his sweater before Krabbenhoft came over in the middle of the scum. Howard then reached and struck Krabbenhoft’s face.
The incident was set off when Howard, whose team is on the NCAA bubble, became upset because Wisconsin called two timeouts in the final minute, the last with 15 seconds to play. Gard claimed he had his backups in the game and was trying to reorganize to avoid a ten-second call.
But Howard felt it wasn’t necessary in a blowout and did not apologize.
“I didn’t like the timeout they called, and I’m being totally honest with you,” Howard said. “I thought it was not necessary at that moment, especially with it being a large lead . . . I thought it wasn’t fair to our guys. And that’s what happened.”
Howard said he reacted after someone from Wisconsin put hands on him, thought he didn’t specify who did it.
“Someone touched me, and I think it was very uncalled for, for them to touch me, as we were verbalizing and communicating with one another. That’s what escalated it,” he said.
Gard explained his rationale for calling time outs, particularly the one with 15 seconds left, in a postgame interview with CBS, which was smart enough to keep the live feed on.
“Apparently, he didn’t like that I called timeout to reset the 10-second call. Because we only had four seconds left to get the ball over halfcourt,” he said “I didn’t want to put my backups–I had all my bench guys in the game– in position of scrambling with only four seconds. So, I took a timeout to get us a new 10 seconds and it helped them get organized and get the ball in. And he did not like that when he came through the handshake line. I’ll leave it at that, and the tape will show the rest.”
The Big Ten will take over from here and there will likely be suspension for Howard after a review.
“The Big Ten Conference is aware of the physical alternation involving Michigan coach Juwan Howard at the conclusion of the Wisconsin’s men’s basketball game. The conference is in contact with both member institutions and is currently assessing the incident. The conference will provide more information and will take swift and disciplinary action,” the conference said in a statement.
Wisconsin AD Chris McIntosh said he had contacted Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, adding that Wisconsin had staff members who were “affected and injured.”
”There is no room, no space for contact like that. The Big Ten takes pride in sportsmanship. That didn’t happen today.”
This isn’t Howard’s first incident with an opposing coach. At last year’s Big Ten tournament, Howard was ejected after getting into a shouting match with Maryland coach Mark Turgeon with 11 seconds to play, with Howard needing to be held back by his assistants. Howard was not suspended.
