Juwan Howard Explains What He Says Led to Physical Altercation With Wisconsin Assistant

The Michigan coach was involved in a verbal altercation that turned physical following Wisconsin's win over the Wolverines on Sunday.

Wisconsin’s 77-63 win over Michigan on Sunday was marred by a post-game fracas that began with a verbal confrontation between the teams’ head coaches, Michigan’s Juwan Howard and Wisconsin’s Greg Gard. The spat later turned into a physical altercation.

Ugliness at the end of Michigan-Wisconsin as Juwan Howard strikes a Badgers assistant, leading to a fight between players 😳

(via @CBSSports)pic.twitter.com/CA6NUktWZH

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 20, 2022

The conflict peaked when Howard took a swing at Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft, with pushing and shoving going on between players and coaches from both sides.

After the game, Howard offered his explanation for what happened, saying that the entire quarrel began when the Badgers took a late timeout as the game was well in hand.

Juwan Howard says he didn’t like the timeout that UW called. pic.twitter.com/LM47i4o7V8

— Zach Heilprin (@ZachHeilprin) February 20, 2022

"I thought it was not necessary at that moment, especially being a large lead," Howard said. "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."

In describing the situation escalating toward a physical conflict, Howard said he was protecting himself after being touched by a Wisconsin coach in what began as a verbal discussion. 

Here's Juwan Howard's side to the story.

Added later that he felt he needed to protect himself, because Greg Gard touched him unnecessarily in the handshake line after he had gotten upset.#Badgers pic.twitter.com/hFWrEtBv1v

— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) February 20, 2022

Howard said he was protecting himself when he grabbed Gard, threw at Krabbenhoft. pic.twitter.com/xbvOjJa480

— Zach Heilprin (@ZachHeilprin) February 20, 2022

"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."

After the game, the Big Ten released a statement saying that the league was in contact with both programs and was assessing the incident, with “swift and appropriate disciplinary action” to follow.