Michigan head basketball coach Juwan Howard has been suspended five games– which means he won’t be on the sidelines for the remainder of the regular season, sources confirmed to Yahoo! Sports.
The suspension comes after Howard struck Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft in the face Sunday night after exchanging words with the team’s head coach Greg Gard during the postgame handshake.
ESPN reports an official announcement and disciplinary actions for other players and coaches involved is expected Monday night.
In Sunday’s postgame news conference, Howard revealed what led up to the altercation explaining he felt like he needed to protect himself after Gard grabbed his arm in an attempt to stop and talk to him. The two men then began to exchange words which escalated into both teams pushing and shoving.
“I think that was very uncalled for him to touch me as we were verbalizing and communicating with one another. That’s what escalated it…Touching me unnecessarily when we were talking, at that point, I thought that was time to protect myself,” Howard said following the game.
Michigan lost 77-63 and Howard said he was upset over Wisconsin’s timeout usage. The Badgers called timeout twice within the last minute of the game, including one in the last 15 seconds although they led by 15.
“I didn’t like the timeout they called, and I’m being totally honest with you,” Howard said. “I thought it was not necessary at that moment, especially with it being a large lead. … I thought that wasn’t fair to our guys. And so that’s what happened.”
