What are you doing Coach Howard?

As many of you know, Michigan HC Juwan Howard sparked headlines with his actions after today’s Big 10 basketball contest between Howard’s Michigan Wolverines and Greg Gard’s Wisconsin Badgers. The game which was played in Madison was a one sided affair towards the end as Wisconsin pulled away from Michigan with an excellent second half performance. Tied at halftime, Wisconsin outscored Michigan 46-32 to prevent an upset on home soil. However the game was a mere backstory to what happened once the buzzer sounded. Howard, upset that Gard called a timeout with 12 seconds remaining in the game (Wisconsin had a double digit lead) refused to shake his hand in the customary post game handshake line. Howard quietly and quickly tried to walk past Gard, Gard stopped Howard by placing his hand on him. At that point, both men would grab each other. I am unsure if Howard attempted to shake Gard’s hand and move on as captions blocked the view of the men’s hands at that time. Those are the undisputed facts, I will now comb over what happened from my perspective and provide insight into what could be a career changing day for Juwan Howard.

I am writing this after having several hours to process and maul over the events of today. This is what I saw. Howard wanted to quickly leave the court, upset with the Badgers and Gard. Gard stopped Howard by placing his left hand on Howard’s right arm. Howard then put his hand between him and Gard. Gard’s hands were not on Howard at this point. Howard grabbed Gard by his lapel. Gard also grabbed Howard. Both men let go of each other within a second. Howard pointed at Gard and both men exchanged words. At this point, players and assistants from both teams got in between the coaches. Howard remained on the baseline while Gard was on the court as the players and assistants created distance between them. The coaches continued to chirp at each other but now at a distance. In the meantime, a Wisconsin assistant began to say words seemingly directed towards Howard. A Michigan player responded to those words with words of his own. The Wisconsin assistant said some words back in what seemed to be an aggressive manor before continuing to say words to Howard. Howard responded by open hand slapping the assistant in the face. The scuffle then exploded before both teams were separated before they went back to their perspective locker rooms.

Here is what I saw with the Wisconsin assistant. As others assistants tried to interject and deescalate the situation, the assistant entered two seconds after Howard and Gard were split up and he was already shouting words before his entry. A Big 10 official who just arrived on the court then attempted to push back said assistant before the Wisconsin assistant said something that seemed to either irritate or upset the Michigan player. The assistant kept speaking until Howard hit him.

Here’s my take away from this. Howard needs to be indefinitely suspended, most likely for the rest of the season. Here’s why. With a minute to go in the contest, Howard had his players run a full court press. Not a problem. Wisconsin had their reserves in and had trouble breaking said press. Not a problem. The rule in college basketball is that a team has 10 seconds to cross half court or they turn the ball over. A timeout resets the ten seconds. Gard called timeout as to not turn the ball over and that timeout made Howard irate as the game was most likely already over. In my opinion, a game is not over till the final buzzer sounds. Howard still wanted his player to compete, thus running the full court press. Gard didn’t want to turn the ball over. Yes who cares about two points in a seemingly pointless effort. Well as a coach, I should. Both Howard and Gard have a responsibility to put their players in the best position possible at all times. If Michigan wants to compete, Wisconsin should as well. If Howard wanted to end the game, he could’ve just let Wisconsin cross half court and run out the clock. He didn’t. It is not for Gard to just let the game run to the end, if his players are in trouble, he needs to act and he did. Gard would be doing a disservice if he didn’t. Also one of those players might be in that exact situation later and now both know how to respond. Howard had no reason to not shake Gard’s hand. Gard didn’t call timeout to gloat on his impending win or to be a bad sport. He made a tactical decision based on the response of the Michigan defense.

However even if Howard didn’t want to shake his hand, he made two more errors. I understand Gard stopped him and if he wants to exchange words with Gard, then that is his business but at no time did Gard attempt to harm or hold Howard in a threatening way. Howard grabbing Gard by the lapel after the fact was unacceptable and unless the assistant made a truly heinous comment, Howard can not justify hitting him.

Howard escalated a situation that didn’t need to go there. You want your boys to continue to compete? Expect Wisconsin to do the same. Do not get mad at a coach for making a coaching decision just because you don’t like it. What was the intention behind the call? Perhaps if Howard thought of that, this all could’ve been avoided.

For the Wisconsin assistant, he needs to be suspended as well. One of the criticisms of Howard is that he is suppose to be an example for young men and I agree. Howard failed and the assistant did as well. In my opinion, unless what he said proves to be heinous, the assistant should only be suspended until the NCAA tournament (Or NIT/ CIT).

Howard should not be fired. It would set a bad precedent. He should be placed on a two year probationary period with strict rules. However if Howard is fired over this, people could and should question the NCAA’s history of light punishments. The same organization that allowed Bobby Knight to throw chairs, made idiotic comments about rape and hit other coaches in the head over his 40 plus years as a head coach. The same organization that allowed Bruce Pearl to be a coach again after multiple recruiting offenses. The same can be said for Rick Pitino, Kelvin Sampson and Todd Bozeman. How about Mark Few only being suspended for three games after getting arrested for a DUI in 2021. Howard shouldn’t lose his job but definitely needs to be punished.

Howard made bad choice upon bad choice today. I don’t think we should judge a man’s whole career off his worst minute but with every thing that went down today makes me have to ask, what are you doing Coach Howard?