PITTSBURGH — So you think the Michigan-Wisconsin dust-up in the postgame handshake line Sunday was ugly?
Check out the video from December of the Iowa high school basketball player sucker-punching an opposing player. Not once. Twice.
That was ugly.
That isn't to minimize what happened in Madison. It started as words between Michigan coach Juwan Howard and Wisconsin coach Greg Gard and escalated to Howard throwing a slap at the head of a Wisconsin assistant coach. That led to a lot of pushing and shoving and at least three players throwing punches. Fortunately, a full-scale brawl didn't ensue.
It was inexcusable behavior by coaches, who always must be held to a higher standard than their players.
Gard was wrong for touching Howard to stop him in the line when Howard, clearly angry over the way Wisconsin's lopsided win ended, was going to walk by him. Howard was wrong to point his finger at Gard and grab his sweater and certainly was wrong to slap at the Wisconsin assistant.
Howard should not have been fired — as some suggested — but he deserved the five-game suspension and $40,000 fine he received Monday. His past had to be considered. This isn't the first time he had an incident with an opposing coach. He was ejected in the second half of a Big Ten tournament game against Maryland last year after having words with Maryland coach Mark Turgeon and threatening him.
Gard deserved more than a $10,000 fine, at least a one-game suspension. He was hardly blameless. He should have allowed Howard to walk by in that heated moment.
The bigger point here is this sort of thing happens more than you think with postgame handshakes.
Sportsmanship?
Please.
Mayhem happened just last week after a college basketball game between North Dakota State and Oral Roberts. Check out the aftermath of Oral Roberts coach Paul Mills yelling at the North Dakota State players. That, too, was ugly and led to a lot of pushing and shoving between the players of the two teams.
Let's put a little Pittsburgh spin on this.
Remember Chuck Noll refusing to shake the hand of Houston Oilers coach Jerry Glanville because he believed Glanville taught his players dirty tactics? Instead, Noll threatened to "kick [Glanville's] ass."
How about Jamie Dixon? He routinely annoyed opposing coaches by doing a drive-through handshake after games, refusing to look at the opposing coaches and players. North Carolina coach Roy Williams called him on it once, holding on to Dixon's hand while offering him a few choice words.
I'm thinking postgame handshakes should be a thing of the past.
They should have been gone years ago, actually.
That includes the NHL's long-standing tradition of a handshake line after each Stanley Cup playoff series.
Is there anything more ridiculous than players spending a series trying to gouge each other's eyes out in the name of winning and then shaking hands and wishing the other guys well after it has ended?
"Do you really mean it?" former Boston Bruins goaltender Gerry Cheevers once posed as a rhetorical question to the Toronto Sun. "Do you say: 'Thanks for bashing my brains in the past seven games and taking $15,000 out of my pocket?'
"I know it's about sportsmanship, but not right after a tough series. I might buy the guy on the other team a beer a couple of days later."
Cheevers generally avoided the handshake line except to duck into it for a second to say something to the opposing goaltender. "There's no rule that says you have to shake," he told the Sun.
Cheevers has it right.
If coaches and players want to shake hands after a game, fine. If they want to meet at mid-ice or midcourt or midfield and pray together, they should go for it. No problem.
But those who don't feel like faking good sportsmanship when emotions are at their highest? Those coaches and players should be allowed to go to their locker room without being criticized. The Michigan-Wisconsin incident wouldn't have happened if Howard had avoided the handshake line.
The poor Iowa kid who was sucker-punched must wish there had been no line after his game. He received a concussion, according to news reports, that left him unconscious. He also needed four stitches in his mouth.
And the kid who perpetrated the attack? He must regret that handshake line, as well. He was arrested after the game on a felony charge of willful injury.
