Juwan Howard throws punch during postgame handshake line after loss at Wisconsin

Juwan Howard and the Michigan Wolverines went into the Kohl Center on Sunday afternoon and lost 77-63 to the Wisconsin Badgers.

Howard apparently took issue with a late timeout called by Wisconsin coach Greg Gard, and he let Gard hear about it in the postgame handshake line.

Howard got in Gard’s face, pointing a finger at the Wisconsin coach. Then, a melee broke out and Howard threw a punch at a Wisconsin assistant coach:

Juwan Howard throws a punch. pic.twitter.com/HiC3y7yKvG

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) February 20, 2022

Several Michigan players (and potentially some Wisconsin players) also were involved in the altercation. Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren will almost certainly issue a suspension to Howard for his role in the fracas. We’ll see if any players face punishment, too.

Gard issued a statement on the altercation after the game:

Greg Gard postgame to Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas. I’m condensing Gard’s quote here. "Apparently he didnt’ like that I called a timeout to reset the 10-second call … I didn’t want to put my backups … I’ll leave it at that and the tape will show the rest."

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) February 20, 2022

In essence, Gard was saying he wanted to reset the 10-second clock to get the ball past halfcourt.

Michigan was pressing UW backups when the game was decided.

Gard called timeout to reset the clock and put his guys in a better spot.

Howard got pissed.

Then postgame happened.

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) February 20, 2022

We’ll see how the B1G decides to handle this situation.