Michigan head coach Juwan Howard has officially issued an apology for his role in the postgame tussle with Wisconsin yesterday.
Michigan announced earlier tonight that Howard has been suspended for the last five games of the regular season. The Big Ten also levied a $40,000 fine against the second-year coach.
After both punishments were announced, Howard released a statement apologizing for his actions, which included striking Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft.
“After taking time to reflect on all that happened, I realize how unacceptable both my actions and words were, and how they affected so many. I am truly sorry.”
“I am offering my sincerest apology to my players and their families, my staff, my family and the Michigan fans around the world. I would like to personally apologize to Wisconsin’s Assistant Coach [Joe] Krabbenhoft and his family, too.”
“Lastly, I speak a lot about being a Michigan man and representing the University of Michigan with class and pride, I did not do that, nor did I set the right example in the right way for my student-athletes. I will learn from my mistake and this mistake will never happen again. No excuses!”
Basketball News … the Big Ten has released its disciplinary decisions for U-M & Wisconsin
B1G Release | https://t.co/SBuAkntfN9
U-M Release | https://t.co/FskmdEDguN#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/cbbn2fgO7P— Michigan Men’s Basketball (@umichbball) February 22, 2022
The brouhaha between the Badgers and Wolverines started with a handshake line confrontation between Howard and his Wisconsin counterpart Greg Gard. Howard was unhappy that Gard had called a timeout with 15 seconds remaining and his team up 15 points.
“I thought it was not necessary at that moment, especially being a large lead,” Howard said, via SI.com. “To have the timeout be called with three or four seconds to go, I thought that that was, what I felt, wasn’t fair to our guys.”
He also expressed his displeasure at Gard, who stopped Howard with his hand as he attempted to pass by, albeit after Howard had yelled “I’ll remember that” at the Badgers’ leader.
“I think that was very uncalled for for him to touch me as we were verbalizing and communicating with one another,” Howard said. “That’s what escalated it. … Touching me unnecessarily when we were talking, at that point I thought that was time to protect myself.”
Gard was fined $10,000 for his role in the fight, but was not suspended. The veteran coach tried to explain his reasoning for the timeout during a postgame interview with CBS.
“Apparently, he [Howard] didn’t like that I called a timeout to reset the 10-second call. We only had about four seconds to get the ball over half court and I had all of my backups – my bench guys in the game. I didn’t want to put them in that position of scrambling with only four seconds,” Gard said. “So I took the timeout and that got us a new 10 seconds and it helped them get organized and get the ball. And he did not like that when he came through the handshake line.”
Two Michigan players–Terrance Williams II and Moussa Diabate–and Wisconsin’s Jahcobi Neath were suspended one game for their transgressions.
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