Men’s basketball head coaches Juwan Howard and Greg Gard were involved in an altercation after the Wisconsin Badgers beat the Michigan Wolverines, 77-63, on Sunday. After a heated exchange in which both coaches had to be separated, Howard threw a punch at Badgers assistant Joe Krabbenhoft.
The dispute was sparked by Gard’s decision to call a timeout in the final minute while up double digits.
Gregory Shamus / Getty Images
“Apparently he didn’t like that I called the timeout to reset the 10-second call. Because we only had four seconds to get the ball over halfcourt,” Gard told CBS after the game. “I didn’t want to put my backups – I had all my bench guys in the game – I didn’t want to put them in that position of scrambling with only four seconds. So I took a timeout and got us a new 10 seconds and it helped them get organized and get the ball in. And he did not like that when he came through the handshake line. I’ll leave it at that and the tape will show the rest.”
Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh says he anticipates the NCAA will respond to the incident “swiftly and aggressively.”
Howard explained that he was upset Gard had put his hands on him in the handshake line.
“Well, basically, I addressed with the head coach that I will remember that, because of that timeout,” Howard said. “And for someone to touch me, 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, and that’s what escalated it.”
Check out the heated incident below.