What Happened Between Michigan and Wisconsin?

On Sunday afternoon in Madison, Wisconsin defeated Michigan 77-63. Things quickly devolved into a full-blown riot involving players and coaches from both Michigan and Wisconsin after a heated handshake line exchange following the game.

Howard seemed to be late in the handshake line at the scorer’s table when Gard confronted him just after the final horn. After exchanging comments, Gard physically stopped Howard from passing past him. Tensions quickly arose between the two.

When Howard threw a punch at Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft, players and coaches on both teams pushed and shoved.

In an interview following the game, Howard explained that he and his teammates had a disagreement because the Badgers had taken a late timeout while the game was already in their favor.

Gard, the Badgers’ coach, called a timeout with 15 seconds remaining in the game because of Michigan’s full-court pressure. It appears that Howard was displeased with that choice, which contributed to the postgame animosity.

When asked about what transpired after the game, Howard stated that the entire incident began when the Badgers called a late timeout when the game was already well underway.

CBS Sports quotes Gard as saying, “It appears like he didn’t appreciate that I called a timeout in order to reset the 10-second call.” “In order to get the ball across half court, we had only four seconds to do so I decided to take a pause rather than risk putting my backups in a precarious position. When he passed through the queue for the handshake, he was not pleased.”