Tom Izzo weighs in on Wisconsin-Michigan fight, calls on Juwan Howard to ‘man up’

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo called Sunday’s fight between Michigan and Wisconsin “bad for college basketball” on Monday.

“I don’t want to get into it, but I have to answer something on it,” Izzo began, via Chris Solari. “It was bad for college basketball … It was a scary situation … I just hope everybody learns from it and gets better.”

Izzo told the media that he is considering calling both Juwan Howard and Greg Gard, or he “might just coach” his own team.

The Spartans head coach told the media on Monday that he was in a meeting with freshmen players when one of his staff members told him, “You can’t believe what’s going on.” He said he stayed in his chair for 30 minutes after the incident. He was presumably in shock from the ugliness between the Big Ten opponents.

Tom Izzo did not call out Juwan Howard by name. However, he did say that you have to “man up” and congratulate whoever “kicked your butt.” He gave shoutouts to two players who recently gave his Spartans a hard time – Illinois’ Trent Frazier and Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis.

“Those are the moments when I just think you learn the most about people,” Izzo said.

Michigan athletic director statement on Juwan Howard incident

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel issued a statement on the postgame fight between the Michigan Wolverines and Wisconsin Badgers. The scrum started with a verbal altercation between head coaches. It ended with a punch thrown by Juwan Howard at an assistant and more from Wolverines players.

The Sunday incident made national headlines and drew widespread criticism from the media.

In a statement posted on the University of Michigan Athletics page, Warde Manuel addressed Juwan Howard’s actions and revealed that the school already reached out to Wisconsin representatives to apologize for the incident.

“I am aware of and watched the end of our men’s basketball game,” Manuel said in a statement. “There is no excuse for any of our staff or student-athletes to get into a physical altercation with others regardless or instigating factors. I reached out and apologized to Chris McIntosh and President Coleman has reached out to UW chancellor Blank to apologize for the totally unacceptable behavior. We will review the situation more thoroughly and work with the Big Ten Conference as they determine their disciplinary actions and will determine if any further disciplinary actions are needed.”

Juwan Howard did not join the typical postgame coaches handshake right away. The announcers noted at the time that it was odd Howard refrained from approaching Greg Gard as the game clock expired. Howard seemed to be the one upset, getting in Gard’s face, pointing, and eventually having it escalate to the point of physicality.

The anger stemmed from a late timeout from Gard when the game was out of reach. The timeout came with 15 seconds remaining while Gard kept the intensity up with a full-court press while winning by double digits.