Michigan Wolverines head coach Juwan Howard Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

Juwan Howard explains his side of Michigan-Wisconsin fight

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated 2/20/22

Michigan coach Juwan Howard refused to back down or apologize for his actions that helped escalate an on-court fight at the end of Saturday’s game.

Howard confirmed in his postgame press conference that he was unhappy with Wisconsin coach Greg Gard’s decision to call timeout with a 15-point lead and 15 seconds remaining in the game. Howard felt that was “not fair” to Michigan. The Wolverines coach also added that the postgame scuffle was escalated by someone touching him, which he said was “very uncalled for.”

Juwan Howard says he didn't like the timeout that was called. He says it was "not necessary" and "not fair to our guys."

— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) February 20, 2022

Juwan Howard: "For someone to touch me, I thought that was very uncalled for." Says that's what escalated the postgame scuffle.

— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) February 20, 2022

Howard added that he did not endorse the fact that some Michigan players apparently tried to throw punches. However, he notably refused to apologize for his conduct.

Howard said it was unfortunate that some of the players also threw punches. He admired them for backing each other up but didn’t want it to go that way. Howard’s presser is over. He did not apologize for his actions. #Michigan

— Michael Cohen (@Michael_Cohen13) February 20, 2022

Howard and Gard sparked the postgame incident in the handshake line, but Howard was definitely the main escalator. Howard also took a swing at Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft, which really sent the entire incident over the edge.

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

Howard had every right to be unhappy with Gard for calling timeout, but there’s plenty of precedent for coaches using timeouts late in blowouts to empty their bench. That alone certainly did not need to lead to a scene like this. Howard’s defiance is unlikely to help him when the Big Ten hands down discipline, either.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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