Juwan Howard was ejected from Michigan’s Big Ten Tournament game on Friday following a heated exchange with Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon, and both coaches later tried to explain why they lost their tempers. Their accounts of what happened were a bit different.
Howard and Turgeon needed to be separated from one another during a TV timeout (video here) after Howard appeared to take exception to something the Maryland coach said. Howard told reporters after Michigan’s 79-66 win that he became angry when Turgeon kept calling attention to Howard stepping outside the coach’s box. He said he confronted Turgeon before Turgeon “charged at me.”
“Turgs saw that I was out of the box. He’s telling the referee, look at my feet, I’m out of the box, and I’m like, ‘Come on, man. This is what we’re doing today? You’re worrying about my feet being out of the box?’” Howard explained, via Angelique Chengelis of the Detroit News. “He said to me, ‘Juwan, I’m not going to let you talk to me. You don’t talk to me ever again,’ and he charged at me.”
Turgeon also spoke with reporters about the incident, and he did not mention having an issue with Howard stepping outside the coach’s box. He said he had previously called the Big Ten commissioner about “what transpired in the first two games” between the Wolverines and Terrapins, though he did not specify what that was.
There were some reports on the internet that claimed Turgeon told Howard “don’t hang the banner because your banners come down,” which would have been a reference to Howard being a part of the “Fab Five” and the infamous Michigan basketball scandal. Turgeon denied saying anything of the sort.
“I stood up for my team. I stood up for me,” Turgeon said. “There’s a rumor out there that I said something about the banner. All I said is, ‘Don’t talk to me. Don’t talk to me.’ There’s nothing about a banner. I just stood there and said, ‘Don’t talk to me.’ That’s it.”
You can see Turgeon’s full comments below:
It’s unclear what Turgeon was so upset about from previous meetings between his team and Howard’s. Perhaps the two have had verbal confrontations in the past and Turgeon pointing out that Howard was stepping outside the box sparked another. Whatever the case, there is clearly no love lost between the two coaches.
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