Juwan Howard has a sideline comportment problem. He is fortunate he will get a chance to work on it while still the basketball coach at Michigan.
When Howard reached out with a right hand and hit Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft in the face after a loss Sunday, it marked at least the third time in a little more than a year where Howard has escalated a situation beyond common coaching protocol. The Michigan coach said his postgame anger was a byproduct of Wisconsin coach Greg Gard’s last-minute timeout call with the game in control. While the timeout was hard to justify as anything other than grandstanding for the home crowd and rubbing it into the visitors, it should also be noted Michigan was still pressing at the time.
Howard grabbed Gard’s pullover and thrust a finger in his face, and it got worse from there. As staff and players intervened, with jawing back and forth, Howard reached over people and connected to Krabbenhoft’s face. That, right then and there, was a line that cannot be crossed.
