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.
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.
"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.
"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.
