Juwan Howard Strikes Wisconsin Assistant Coach Joe Krabbenhoft

A postgame confrontation turned physical between the Wolverines and Badgers.

Following Wisconsin's 77-63 win over Michigan, the postgame handshake line turned physical. After Michigan head coach Juwan Howard and Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard started to exchange words, the verbal altercation became more heated with assistant coaches and players closing in on the two coaches. As players tried to get in between Howard and Gard, Howard reached in and struck Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft in the head. More altercations ensued from there. You can watch video of the incident below. 

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

According to some accounts on social media, the initial beef between Howard and Gard stemmed from a timeout Gard called with 20 seconds left with the game already decided. 

Gard put 5 subs in with 1 minute left. Michigan continued to play hard (which they should) and even pressed with <20 seconds left. Therefore, Gard called a timeout to coach his players on how to break the press. If that upsets Howard so much to fight, maybe he shouldn’t coach?

— BJ Tully (@22DollaZ_Beach) February 20, 2022

Following the game, Howard addressed the incident. 

"Basically I addressed with the head coach that I will remember that because of that time out," Howard said. "I think that was very uncalled for, for him to touch me as we were verbalizing and communicating with one another. So that's what ended up happening. That's what escalated it." 

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

Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard also addressed the incident. 

"I know he didn't come through right away, he came in later after some players," Gard said. "I was going down the line with everybody, they were all fine. He came up to me, pulled his mask down and said, 'I'll remember that.' He started pointing at me and tapped me in the chest, and I said, 'hold on. Let me explain to you why I took the timeout.' Maybe he doesn't know the rule that you get the 10 seconds reset. I wasn't going to put my players in that position to have to break a press in four seconds. It's difficult to off the bench. I wouldn't do that with our regular group. If I can take a timeout, it gives my players the best chance to have success. So that's where it started that he said, 'I'll remember that.'"

Here's how Greg Gard described the incident with Juwan Howard. #Badgers pic.twitter.com/3RbwBDQvmd

— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) February 20, 2022

The question now becomes what level of punishment is handed down from the Big Ten and who is punished. 

As far as the game goes, it was tied at halftime and went back and forth through the first four minutes of the second half. That is when Wisconsin went on an 18-2 run that would prove to be enough to secure a win. The Badgers shot 50.8% from the floor in the game while the Wolverines hit less than 40% of its attempts. 

Johnny Davis led Wisconsin with 25 points, six rebounds and three blocks. 

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