Juwan Howard’s reaction to a late timeout that was called in Michigan’s loss on Sunday sparked an ugly fight, but Wisconsin coach Greg Gard insists he was not trying to disrespect his opponent.
Gard called a timeout with his Badgers leading 76-61 and 15 seconds remaining in the game. Howard confronted Gard about it in the handshake line afterward. The two coaches got into an argument before things escalated. Howard threw a swing at Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft, which really sparked the mayhem. You can see the video here.
After the game, Gard told CBS that he called a timeout to avoid putting his reserve players in a situation where they’d be called for a 10-second violation.
“(Howard) didn’t like that I called a timeout to reset the 10-second call,” Gard said. “We only had four seconds to get the ball over half court. I had all my bench guys in the game and didn’t want to put them in that position of scrambling with only four seconds. So, I took a timeout and got us a new 10 seconds to help them get organized and get the ball in. He did not like that when he came through the handshake line. I’ll leave it at that and the tape will show the rest.”
Gard’s explanation makes sense. He didn’t try to call a timeout to show Michigan up, although he probably could have just let the situation play out. Regardless, that doesn’t excuse the way Howard handled things.
Howard notably refused to apologize after the game. He explained why he was upset and seemed to imply Gard was the aggressor.
Howard will almost certainly be suspended for his actions. He was also ejected from a game last year for getting into it with an opposing coach (video here). The Big Ten could take that into consideration.
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