Juwan Howard addresses fallout, possible suspension for punch following Wisconsin loss

Michigan head coach Juwan Howard will almost certainly be suspended following his on-court scuffle with Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard on Sunday.

In the waning minutes of Wisconsin’s win over Michigan on Sunday, Gard decided not to let the clock run and take the win as is. Instead, he called timeout and tried to get his Wisconsin Badgers to continue playing hard until the final whistle. That seemed to have irked Howard, who exchanged a few words with Gard and the Wisconsin coaching staff postgame. Shortly thereafter, players got involved with the pushing and shoving; after Howard and Gard started a shoving match, Howard appeared to have punched or slapped Gard.

Juwan Howard took offense to a late timeout from Wisconsin and took a swing in the handshake line, chaos ensues pic.twitter.com/dk4hnkTscP

— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) February 20, 2022

After the game, Howard addressed an impending suspension, but he didn’t give much insight. Instead, he just reiterated that it will be up to the Big Ten officials.

“Well, I’ll respect whatever the Big Ten (does), the decision they make,” Howard said. “It’s up to them, and I will respect whatever decision they end up making.

Immediately after the game, Howard did not apologize for his actions, according to local reporters.

“Juwan Howard has not apologized for anything that happened,” tweeted Michael Cohen of the Detroit Free Press. “Said he was upset about Wisconsin calling a timeout late in the game. He expressed that frustration to Greg Gard. Howard said Gard touched him during the postgame line and he felt the need to defend himself.”

Big Ten issues statement on Juwan Howard incident

The Big Ten has issued a statement on the postgame fight between the Michigan Wolverines and Wisconsin Badgers, which was sparked by an altercation between head coaches and including a punch thrown by Juwan Howard at an assistant. The Sunday incident has made national headlines and drawn widespread criticism from the media.

“The Big Ten Conference is aware of a physical altercation involving Michigan Head Coach Juwan Howard at the conclusion of the Michigan Wolverines and Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball game,” the statement reads. “The conference is in contact with both member institutions and is currently assessing the incident. The conference will provide more information and will take swift and appropriate disciplinary action when it completes its review.”

Juwan Howard didn’t 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 on Howard’s part.

The anger seemed to begin due to a late timeout from Gard when the game was already decided. The timeout came with 15 seconds remaining while Gard kept the intensity up with a full court press while winning by double digits.