On Sunday afternoon, an episode of “when keeping it real goes wrong” made an appearance at the end of the Michigan vs. Wisconsin men’s basketball game.
After a final minute filled with competitive and childish tit-for-tat, the teams lined up by the scorer’s table for the traditional post-game handshake.
There Michigan head coach Juwan Howard, already upset that Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard called a timeout in the game’s final seconds with the Badgers up by double digits, got into a confrontation with Gard.
Howard gave Gard a dismissive handshake, muttered something to the effect of “I’ll remember that,” and tried to move on. But Gard grabbed Howard to stop him, after which Howard put his finger in Gard’s face and told him “Don’t f***ing touch me.”
And that’s when it all went wrong.
Jawing, pushing and shoving ensued. That led to a few punches being thrown and Howard open hand grabbing/mushing/slapping Badgers assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft, who could clearly be seen entering the scuffle and jawing at Howard with no provocation.
After the teams were separated and ushered to the locker room, both coaches offered their versions of the incident.
“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,” Howard told reporters. “That’s what escalated it.”
Gard rationalized his behavior as an educational moment.
“I said ‘hold on, let me explain to you why I took the timeout,’ maybe he doesn’t know the rule that you get the ten seconds reset,” Gard said. “I wasn’t going to put my players in that type of situation to break a press in four seconds coming stiff cold off the bench.”
In that aftermath, everyone has offered their opinion and analysis about the situation and what will/should happen next.
Firstly, this was an embarrassment to everyone involved.
Second, Juwan Howard was wrong. Regardless of the feelings over the timeout or Gard grabbing him, he lost his composure and hit an opposing coach. That is a no-no for every coach, period.
Gard should not escape blame though.
He put his hands on Howard first which caused Howard’s eruption. Howard was obviously upset, so just let him take his temper to the locker room. The minute Gard grabbed him, even for something as innocent as an explanation, he escalated the situation and enabled Howard’s frustration to explode on the court.
Also at fault is Krabbenhoft. While we don’t know what he said, he can clearly be seen entering the situation and further inflaming it by mouthing off at Howard.
Those are a few of the conclusions we can draw. But there are others as well, and those revolve around some attempting to turn the incident into everything it’s not.
Firstly, this incident does NOT involve race. It was an unfortunate event where blame can be passed around, but it had nothing to do with Black and white coaches.
Yet while the situation was not racial, some of the analysis is.
After the video circulated, the infamous “thug” word surfaced as well and we’re all well aware of that word’s influence and how it’s used by individuals and the media to describe Black men.
This was an unfortunate incident that escalated quickly and unnecessarily. It was NOT a brawl or Malice at the Palace part 2, but some would have you think that Juwan Howard channeled his inner Jermaine O’Neal and Stephen Jackson and landed a haymaker on Krabbenhoft.
Howard did not punch Krabbenhoft. Call it a slap or mush, but it definitely wasn’t a punch.
This evening, Juwan received his punishment.
Howard was suspended for the remainder of the regular season (five games) and was fined $40,000.
Gard was fined $10,000 and a few players received one game suspensions.
Some felt Howard should be fired, which is ridiculous. It was ugly, embarrassing and straight-up wrong, but he doesn’t deserve to lose his job over it. Besides, we’ve witnessed much worse in sports.
Let’s call this incident what it is- a heated, childish end to a game that erupted into a scuffle.
Both coaches were punished. The only thing missing was blame, and possibly a fine, for Krabbenhoft.
So, accept the outcome and don’t exacerbate the situation by creating false narratives and trolling with racially inciteful terminology.
