Michigan coach Juwan Howard appeared to take a swipe at Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft’s face in the post-game handshake line between the two teams, setting off a massive brawl involving coaches and players from both sides.
Greg Gard stopped Howard in the handshake line, leading to the two men exchanging words before being surrounded by a few players and coaches. Things got entirely crazy as Howard put his finger in Gard’s face and grabbed his sweater before Krabbenhoft came over in the middle of the scrum. Howard then reached out and grabbed Krabbenhoft’s face.
Both teams began pushing and shoving, with Michigan forwards Moussa Diabate and Terrance Williams appearing to throw punches.
After the game, Howard tried to explain what set him off.
The Badgers were up 15 when Gard took a timeout with 15 seconds left.
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“Apparently he didn’t like that I called the timeout to reset the 10-second call. Because we only had four seconds to get the ball over halfcourt,” Gard told CBS. “I didn’t want to put my backups — I had all my bench guys in the game — I 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 and it helped them get organized and get the ball in. And 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.”
Howard said Gard started to touch him in a way that he felt was totally unnecessary as he tried to walk away from him in the handshake line.
Howard still did not apologize as he did not endorse the fact that some Michigan players were seen throwing punches after he threw one.
Wisconsin won, 77-63.
