Michigan played its worst half in weeks and wasn’t competitive down the stretch against a Wisconsin team that didn’t even play particularly well, but the game will be remembered as a footnote.
Instead, the story of the day was a handshake line dust-up between Juwan Howard and Greg Gard that led to a brawl.
Gard escalated the situation by grabbing Howard in the handshake line, but Juwan Howard throwing an open-hand swipe at Joe Krabbenhoft is now going to be the defining point of Michigan’s season. His loss of composure is going to lead to suspensions and those suspensions might end up determining whether Michigan makes the NCAA Tournament or not. Not whether Eli Brooks hits enough shots in the final weeks of his career or whether U-M’s young players continue to improve, but what sort of discipline the Big Ten opts to hand down after the school’s head coach started a brawl.
Not only is it an inexcusable lapse in judgment from the program’s leader, but it’s also a mistake that’s unfair to the players on his roster. The Wolverines are entering the most important four-game stretch of their season with home games against Rutgers, Illinois, Michigan State and Iowa, but they’ll spend the flight home wondering who will be on the bench and who will be in uniform.
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