On Sunday afternoon, an episode of “when keeping it real goes wrong” made an appearance at the end of the Michigan vs. Wisconsin men’s basketball game.
After a final minute filled with competitive and childish tit-for-tat, the teams lined up by the scorer’s table for the traditional post-game handshake.
There Michigan head coach Juwan Howard, already upset that Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard called a timeout in the game’s final seconds with the Badgers up by double digits, got into a confrontation with Gard.
Howard gave Gard a dismissive handshake, muttered something to the effect of “I’ll remember that,” and tried to move on. But Gard grabbed Howard to stop him, after which Howard put his finger in Gard’s face and told him “Don’t f***ing touch me.”
And that’s when it all went wrong.
Jawing, pushing and shoving ensued. That led to a few punches being thrown and Howard open hand grabbing/mushing/slapping Badgers assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft, who could clearly be seen entering the scuffle and jawing at Howard with no provocation.
After the teams were separated and ushered to the locker room, both coaches offered their versions of the incident.
“Someone touched me, and I think it was very uncalled for, for them to touch me, as we were verbalizing and communicating with one another,” Howard told reporters. “That’s what escalated it.”
Gard rationalized his behavior as an educational moment.
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