No more handshake line? “Come on” says Michigan coach Phil Martelli
Following Michigan basketball’s 77-63 loss at Wisconsin, one that ended with a scrum involving head coach Juwan Howard for which he received a five-game suspension, some called for the end of the postgame handshake lines. A few national pundits and fans, especially, considered it an archaic sportsmanship ritual that had outlived its usefulness.
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Not surprisingly, many coaches disagreed, but especially Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo.
“That, to me, would be the biggest farce, joke, ridiculous nature of anything I’ve ever heard of,” Izzo told reporters Monday. “We’ve already taught these poor 18-year-olds that when you’re told to go to class and you don’t like it, you can leave. We’ve already told these kids that if you’re not happy, you can do something else. And we’ve already told these kids that it’s hard to hold them accountable.
“And now we’re going to tell them to not man up and walk down a line to someone who’s kicked your butt and have enough class to shake their hand. It’s utterly ridiculous. So, if the president said it, I think he’s full of it. If the best coach in America said it, I think … that gets me more than this incident.”
He wasn’t alone. Michigan associate head coach Phil Martelli, who will take over for Howard for the next five regular season games, agreed with Izzo.
“Do not get rid of them. We cannot give in,” the Michigan assistant said. “We can not give in. Come on. It’s a healthy competition, and in healthy competition, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. There are salesmen all over Michigan that are going to go into a company today. They’re either going to get the sale or not get the sale, but are they not going to shake hands and say, ‘thank you for this opportunity?’
“Look … this is about more than basketball. This is about teaching young people lessons. And not just the young people playing the game, [but] all the young people that watched and all the young people that support these teams — man up. Man up. Right?”
The incident stemmed from the end of the game in which Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard called timeout with 15 seconds remaining in the big win over Michigan. Howard admitted later he didn’t like it, and told Gard, “I’ll remember that” in the handshake line.
Martelli, though, didn’t see anything wrong with Michigan playing hard to the end, noting handling subs, etc., could make it tricky for goth teams.
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“It was ebb and flow,” the Michigan assistant added. “I do think that that’s a really, really, sensitive situation, because who subs first? Who’s on the floor?
“What happened has happened. And no one — no one —walked out without learning hard lessons. I was wracking my brain to [think] what would this be comparable to. And I really don’t have one.”
But he is ready to move on. Michigan A.D. Warde Manuel provided “great leadership,” Martelli said, in setting the expectation going forward. And while he’ll miss his friend on the bench, Martelli is confident he can keep the ship afloat. After all, it’s not his first rodeo as a head coach.
“I can run a practice, and I can manage a game,” he said. “Some would also say I can do this … that I can talk. I might not always make sense, but I can talk.
“But I think we go forward together. That’s what this has to be. I’m a part of it, but I’m no more or less a part of it than [Michigan assistants] Howard Eisley or Saddi Washington. We’re doing this together moving forward.”
