Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg discuss postgame handshake line following Michigan-Wisconsin fight

The Michigan-Wisconsin scrum on Sunday left a lot of hoops talking heads wondering why college basketball teams still go through a postgame handshake line. Mike Greenberg hosted Jay Bilas and Seth Greenberg on ESPN’s Get Up on Monday morning to discuss the drama unfolding after Juwan Howard’s outburst.

“Shaking hands, should we do it, shouldn’t we do it, in the end, if you cannot control your emotions at the end of a game, alright, it’s about looking someone in the eye and saying let’s moving on, that’s a problem to me and I think we need to be above that,” Seth Greenberg said.

The Get Up host agreed with Greenberg about the sentiment behind the handshake line.

“I like what it represents, which is to say, good game, we competed against each other for 40 minutes and now we shake hands and walk away friends, but if it’s going to create problems like this then I certainly see people taking the other side,” Mike Greenberg said.

Jay Bilas disagrees about the meaningfulness of the postgame handshake, likening it to a Little League practice.

“I don’t care for the handshake line for a different reason, it has nothing to do with avoiding confrontation or anything like that,” Bilas said. “I used to call it the Little League handshake line. To me, if you’re taking 30 handshakes in a row, it doesn’t have as much meaning. It’s almost like you’re high-fiving everyone walking by. I get it, it’s a sportsmanship thing, but I prefer a handshake with your counterpart that has a bit more meaning. I don’t think we should even discuss getting rid of the line just because two coaches can’t behave properly. That has no meaning to me at all.”

Juwan Howard appears to throw punch during postgame fracas

Off the heels of yet another bad loss for the Michigan basketball program, an argument broke out between Wolverines head coach Juwan Howard and Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard after the final buzzer. A scrum ensued and it resulted in Howard throwing a right hand through the sea of red, navy and yellow.

Howard didn’t join the typical postgame coaches handshake right away. The announcers noted at the time that it was odd Howard didn’t approach Gard as the game clock expired. Howard seemed to be the one upset, getting in Gard’s face, pointing and eventually escalating to the point of physicality.

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 with Wisconsin up by 15.

“Apparently, he didn’t like that I called a timeout to reset the 10-second call,” Gard said postgame. “Because we only had four seconds get the ball over half court, and I didn’t want to put my backups, I had all my bench guys in the game. I didn’t want to put them in that position of scrambling with only four seconds, so I took a timeout. They got us a new 10 seconds to help them get organized, to get the ball in, and he did not like that when he came through the handshake line.”

Wisconsin AD calls for swift action

Michael Coen of the Detroit Free Press tweeted that Howard did not apologize for anything that happened and that he was upset about the timeout call. Howard claimed Gard touched him during the postgame line and he felt the need to defend himself. Coen also reported that Howard had not apologized to the Wisconsin head coach.

Wisconsin Athletic Director Chris McIntosh addressed the media before Gard’s opening statement saying that he’s been in touch with the B1G. “There is no room for that in our competition. It’s unfortunate what transpired. I expect the league will act swiftly. It’s difficult for me to compose myself,” McIntosh said.

Wisconsin defeated Michigan 77-63 thanks to 25 points and six rebounds from Badgers star sophomore Johnny Davis.