Michigan Basketball season on the brink after Juwan Howard’s disaster

Sunday was a terrible day all around for Michigan basketball as the Wolverines lost to Wisconsin and much more after Juwan Howard threw a punch. 

The trip to the Kohl Center turned into a disaster for the Michigan basketball team on Sunday and it wasn’t just because the Wolverines lost to the Badgers by double digits.

After Greg Gard called a timeout late in the game, Juwan Howard refused to shake his hand after the game and chaos ensued. Gard and Howard exchanged words and Howard eventually threw a punch (an open-handed slap) at a Wisconsin coach.

There was likely more behind it than a late timeout as it was a physical game and of course, Brad Davison got in his patented cheap shots (an elbow to Hunter Dickinson’s you know where), but still it’s going to be tremendously costly for the Michigan basketball team.

Gard also started the physical confrontation. Juwan tried to walk past him and Gard grabbed him and wouldn’t allow him to walk by as Juwan pointed out afterward.

So if Juwan Howard is suspended, Greg Garg absolutely needs to be suspended too.

The worst part is that Moussa Diabate and Terrance Williams also got involved and just like their head coach, will likely face suspensions at the hands of the Big Ten.

That’s justified and Howard surely knows he made a mistake that will stick with him for the rest of his coaching career, not to mention the disastrous consequences for the rest of this season as the Wolverines are trying to play their way off the bubble and into the NCAA tournament.

That seems like an afterthought now. Michigan dropped to 8-7 in the Big Ten and is 14-11 overall. Yet, the loss to Wisconsin on Sunday was hardly a killer. The Badgers were a top-16 overall seed in the committee’s latest projection and losing on the road to a team like that isn’t going to hurt you.

But losing your head coach and two key rotational players, including one starter with just six games remaining and all against teams in the top-100 and five of the six ranked in the top 30 of the NET rankings is about the worst possible situation imaginable.

It was already going to be a challenge and now the 2021-22 season is on the brink, thanks to the actions of Juwan Howard, which might have been understandable, knowing the opponent, but are inexcusable all the same.

Juwan Howard shouldn’t be fired over this incident. He was wrong, he will apologize and he will get suspended. But Michigan’s postseason chances are now on life support and the Wolverines have no one to blame but their head coach.