Long time former St. Joseph’s coach and current Michigan associate head coach Phil Martelli got his chance to a head coach again.
Martelli, one of the beloved figures in the history of Hawk Hill, coached the Wolverines to a 71-62 victory over Rutgers in Ann Arbor last night He will coach Michigan through the last five games of the regular season of the regular season after the conference in conjunction with both Michigan and Wisconsin, suspended Juwan Howard for the remainder of the regular season and fined him $40,000 for hitting Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft in the face after Badgers’ 77-63 blowout victory in Madison Sunday.
“When I spoke to Juwan Howard, he said, “I feel fine,”’ Martelli said. “I have the best coaching staff in the country “That was Saddi Washington and Howard Eisley.”
In addition, Michigan was playing without forwards Terrance Williams II and Moussa Diabate, who were suspended for the game as a result of throwing punches in a team brawl.
“We knew Rutgers didn’t care we had players out,” said freshman Caleb Houston, who scored 13 of his 21 points in the second half.
Houston made five of Michigan’s seven three pointers. Center Hunter Dickinson added 16 points for the Wolverines (15-11, 9-7) who desperately needed the win to keep their NCAA chances alive.
The win also eased the pain of the heated incident that had some columnists calling for Howard’s job and others calling for the end of the handshake line.
In retrospect, the penalties seem about right, although we initially might have added time in anger management for Howard if he had not apologized after reflection Monday.
The incident actually started in the final minute of the game when Gard substituted his walk-ons and Michigan, which still had its starters in the game, was pressing full court, leading Gard to call a timeout to settle his team and give his team out and give it a chance to cross half court to avoid a ten-second call.
Following the final buzzer, Gard grabbed Howard’s arm as he walked past in an attempt to stop and talk to him. The two men exchanged words, with Howard putting his finger in Gard’s face and grabbing Gard’s shirt before being surrounded by several players and coaches. Krabbenhoft came into the middle of the crowd and exchanged words with Howard, and Howard then reached out and struck Krabbenhoft”s face,
Both teams began pushing and shoving with Diabate and Williams and Neath appearing to throw punches.
Michigan has three more games at home starting with Illinois before playing at Ohio State in the final game of the season.
