Juwan Howard Should Be Severely Punished, Not Fired, for His Actions
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The NBA all star weekend will have to wait until tomorrow. Today I have to talk about the unfortunate incident that happened at the end of the Wisconsin-Michigan basketball game yesterday.
This was a somewhat easy win for Wisconsin, with Michigan going ice cold in the second half. Wisconsin won, won with ease and put a dent into Michigan's tournament hopes. Near the end of the game Wisconsin called a timeout, up 14 points, while Michigan still had a few starters in, and they were pressing, with about 10 seconds left in the game. I feel like both head coaches made a mistake here. Michigan should not have been pressing. They were down, they had no chance to win and the starters should have been out. Wisconsin had the win in hand, they could have let the clock run and there was no need to even worry about using a pointless timeout that late in the game. None of this is against the actual rules, but it is part of the unwritten rules in the world of sports. Each coach made multiple unwritten rule mistakes.
During the handshakes at the end of the game, which I was totally happy not having last season due to COVID, Juwan Howard tried to quickly walk past Greg Gard to avoid letting his temper get the best of him. Howard was, for some reason, fuming about the late timeout. And I guess when Howard walked by Gard he said, "I will remember this shit". That was not needed. But Gard grabbed Howard, I guess to try and explain. Again, that was not needed. Things just escalated from there. When Gard grabbed at Howard and stopped him, Howard went off. He started to yell and grab at Gard and the other Wisconsin coaches. It got to the point where the players got involved. People were gathering in a big circle and yelling at one another. At one point Howard open palm slapped a Wisconsin assistant coach. Then players, pretty much all Michigan players, threw punches. Howard had to be pulled back by some of his players. Moussa Dibate and Terrance Williams threw hands. The players and coaches all moved the big circle back and forth, and things were eventually settled.
After the game each coach gave their side of the story and every single website and sports app in the world had their own personal take. I sat and stewed in it for a while. At first I just kind of forgot about it. Then I thought some more about it. Then I slept on it. And then my dad and I texted about it this morning.
I believe that there needs to be punishment handed down, and it needs to be stern. After the football offseason and this basketball incident, Warde Manuel, Michigan's AD, needs to flex his muscles. It has not been great to be a Michigan fan the past couple months, what with Harbaugh openly flirting with the NFL, the basketball team struggling and now this post game handshake incident. Howard needs to be suspended, maybe for the rest of the season, including the Big Ten tournament, and any postseason tournament they may get invited to. Howard also needs to feel the punishment in his wallet. The fine should be pretty significant. I'm thinking, at the low end, at least 20,000 dollars. My dad also brought up that maybe they should send Howard to anger management, I hadn't thought of that, but it seems like a good idea, being this is not the first time Howard has gotten physical with another coach. Whatever it may be, the punishment needs to leave a mark.
As for the people saying Howard should be fired, that is nonsense. These things do happen, and this is not even close to the worst thing that has happened on a college basketball floor. Let us not forget about Bobby Knight throwing a chair or grabbing a player by the throat. Or the time Coach K openly chastised Dillon Brooks for shooting a late 3 in a tournament game that ended Duke's season. We have all the off field stuff with Iowa football last season, and Kirk Ferentz did not even miss a game. Howard putting his hands on another coach is very, very wrong, and needs to be addressed. But there is no world in which he deserves to lose his job. He is having a rough year, he let his emotions get the best of him and he will most likely pay a heavy price. But lose his job? Come on. That is too, too far. But he does deserve a swift and painful punishment. This is also a chance for Warde Manuel to hit the reset button and show the coaches of the sports teams that they work for him, not the other way around.
Yesterday was a bad game marred with a horrible on court incident involving the head coach of the basketball team. Now we wait to see what Howard's punishment will actually be.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.