Head coaches should just coach their team and not worry about what is going on over on the opposing sideline or bench.
That’s age-old advice that University of Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard should have heeded Sunday night as No. 15 Wisconsin defeated the visiting Wolverines, 77-63. Instead, Michigan officials should fire him after his involvement in a verbal altercation that turned physical with Wisconsin coach Greg Gard and one of his assistants and led to a brief brawl at midcourt during the postgame handshake line.
It’s difficult to say a coach should be fired because that person then loses his ability to support his family. But this incident was more than just about wins and losses. It’s about a coach who lost his temper and took an open-handed swing at Badgers assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft. It was deplorable, an act of violence where a coach allowed his emotions to overcome his passion. Order was restored fairly quickly, but it doesn’t take much in this divided country to turn a brief exchange into utter chaos.
