Following Sunday’s NCAA men’s basketball matchup between Michigan & Wisconsin, chaos erupted when Wolverines coach Juwan Harlow took aim at Badgers assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft. In the ensuing melee, several players appeared to be throwing punches.
Howard was slow to line up for the postgame handshake, as noted by commentators. This was after Michigan’s 77-63 defeat to Wisconsin. Howard appeared to be walking by Greg Gard, Badgers head coach, without shaking his hand. But Gard stopped Howard and they exchanged words.
The men seemed to grab each other’s sweaters and Howard then put his finger into Gard’s eye. As they continued to shout at each other, several players and assistants surround Howard and he appears to hit Krabbenhoft in the face.
As the other team tried to separate them, players and coaches of both teams began pushing and shoving one another. Several players were also seen throwing punches.
In a postgame press conference, Howard said that he was upset by Gard calling timeout with 15 seconds remaining in the game. The Badgers were up 15 points. Howard said that he was offended by someone touching him.
He said, “Someone had touched my body, and I thought it was uncalled for.” “So that’s what happened. This is what made it worse.
Gard stated to CBS Sports that he took a timeout in order to give his backups time to move the ball over the midcourt.
He said, “We only had four seconds to get the ball past half-court.” “I didn’t want to leave my bench guys in that situation of scrambling, so he took the timeout. When he got to the handshake line, he didn’t like it.
Ward Manuel, Michigan Athletic Director, stated in a statement that there was no reason for staff members or student-athletes in the state to engage in physical altercations with other people regardless of their instigating factors.
Manuel stated that he and other school officials had apologized to Wisconsin officials and said they would “review and work with Big Ten Conference as it determines their disciplinary actions, and will determine whether further disciplinary action is warranted.”
