Early in Michigan’s loss yesterday to Wisconsin, Devante’ Jones leapt for an offensive rebound and caught it. On his way down, Badgers guard Brad Davison, the most notoriously dirty player in college basketball, kicked Jones’s feet out from under him. The Michigan point guard toppled to the ground. The perpetrator grabbed at the ball. The officials awarded Wisconsin possession on the arrow. Jones walked away.

The man Jones plays for had an opportunity to disengage from this:

Juwan Howard took offense to a late timeout from Wisconsin and took a swing in the handshake line, chaos ensues pic.twitter.com/dk4hnkTscP

— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) February 20, 2022

What he did was hit—or to be more precise, down-slappily head-wuggled Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft. Another view, where you can hear some of the exchange:

Here's really good raw video of the aftermath of #Michigan and #Wisconsin. You can clearly hear Juwan Howard say "I'll remember that" to Greg Gard prior to the altercation.

(Video courtesy of WKOW. Caution unedited, NSFW language.) pic.twitter.com/27N2q1OD8I

— Jeanna Trotman (@JeannaTrotmanTV) February 20, 2022

Howard’s slap precipitated a mini-brawl, with several Wisconsin assistants and players getting into it with a couple of Michigan players, and various others hanging around on the periphery or trying to break it up. He was quite clearly the most at fault of anybody for what transpired. It was a massive embarrassment for the university. It quite clearly can't happen again. Let's try to discuss it.

Here's what I think I saw, to the best of my abilities, from a couple of videos, and trying as best I can to set aside my obvious Michigan biases.

So with a few seconds and a safe lead late in the game, Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard called a timeout on an inbound, ostensibly to extend his team’s clock from 4 to 10 seconds. Howard evidently took that as a cheap shot, a way to make his players wallow in their loss. As the coaches crossed in the handshake line, Howard told Gard “I’ll remember that shit.”

At this point Gard stepped in front with a “Woah, hey” and grabbed Howard’s arm to stop him from going by. It’s plausible Gard meant to explain his timeout, but the physicality clearly angered Howard, who grabbed Gard’s sweater, then let it go and put his finger in Gard’s face, repeating “Don’t touch me, don’t fucking touch me.”

Gard began yelling back, and his recruiting director, Kyle Blackbourn, arrived, then also put his hands on Howard. Jaron Faulds arrived and began pulling Howard away while a university police officer was pulling Gard back. Faulds put himself between the coaches, who were still going at it—what I can hear is Howard repeating “Don’t fucking touch me” and Gard replying “Oh you big. You’re a big man?” Howard was showing his fist.

Into this entered three people. Wisconsin assistant Sharif Chambliss inserted himself between the coaches and Faulds, yelling at Howard. Chambliss attracted the attention of the police officer, who switched from Gard to Chambliss, who in turn slipped behind Faulds and continued yelling at Howard.

At the same time Terrence Williams II appeared at Howard’s shoulder. Trying to lip-read I’m pretty sure he started by telling Blackbourn “c’mon man,” then twice told him “Stop!” For a moment it seemed things were going to break up, as a Big Ten official had arrived as well.

At this point Krabbenhoft inserted himself and started yelling at Howard and pushing at Terrence Williams II. Whatever Krabbenhoft said, it attracted everyone’s attention. Faulds looked right at him. The Big Ten official turned his attention to preventing Krabbenhoft from getting to Howard. Williams and Faulds joined the official in holding Krabbenhoft back and Blackbourn continued yelling and pushing into Williams. The group shifted back into the collection of Michigan players as Hunter Dickinson and Frankie Collins were pulling him away. Moussa Diabate stepped in next to Faulds.

Kraggenhoft caught the attention too of Howard, who now returned to the heart of the scrum by hopping behind the Big Ten official. Howard then used his open hand to reach over Faulds and half-slap/half-face mush Krabbenhoft across the left side of his head with some force.

The slappyfwish (technical term) wasn’t injurious, but it wasn’t soft either, and looked worse on camera because Howard balled his fist afterwards. That action, more than any other, precipitated the violence that followed. That it was committed by Michigan’s head coach is the reason it’s the story of the night.

After the slap, Krabbenhoft was pulled away by a couple of Wisconsin players. Blackbourn began grappling Williams’s wrists while Williams was seemingly trying to pull away. Michigan assistants Saddi Washington and Chris Hunter jumped in to break things up, with Hunter yelling at Michigan’s players to back away and Washington arming apart the center of the melee. Blackbourn gave Washington a shove with his fists (I wouldn’t interpret it as a punch), then too got pulled to the rear.

As Blackbourn was pulled away, UW assistant Sharif Chambliss, who had surged towards Howard at the slap, apparently leapt on Williams, taking him to the ground near the stands. I saw some Wisconsin fans online arguing that Williams pulled Chambliss down, but Williams’s hands were both clearly caught by Blackbourn when Chambliss came through.

The two of them disappear then you see Williams is up and Chambliss is past him (to the left of the yellow sweatshirt fan) and the two are grappling as Chambliss is trying to attack Howard, with the officer between them. The officer manages to get Howard away with the help of some Michigan players, and Chambliss goes down. A Michigan staffer I couldn’t identify (I think it’s Jon Sanderson) saw this and curled his body over Chambliss, shielding him, while Saddi Washington stepped in to clear people away from the fallen coach. The staffer (Sanderson?) apparently said something that got Chambliss to calm down, then let him up.

Chambliss got up near Adrian Nunez, who backed off. At this point Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis, who’d been helping to hold back Krabbenhoft, ran in to retrieve Chambliss.

When Chambliss went down, Williams turned around to find a Wisconsin player, Jahcobi Neath, who had entered the fray and started throwing punches at him. Williams punched back, then Diabate too took swings at Neath before they were pulled apart by Hunter. Wisconsin’s Tyler Wahl found Williams and calmed him down.

By this point things were deescalating. Gard walked back towards the Michigan players and yelled “Get off the court” then something inaudible. Caleb Houstan reacted to whatever was said and charged Gard but was held back by a teammate. The final act, once the teams were separated, was from Brad Davison, who was trying to lead his teammates back over towards where Michigan was exiting the court under the guise of going to sing “Varsity,” which I presume is a postgame tradition. Davison’s intention is not hard to read.

Finally a UW assistant dropped a late-90s reference you kids aren’t old enough to understand.

In a short postgame presser Howard explained “someone” touched him and he didn’t respond well to that:

Here's Juwan Howard's side to the story.

Added later that he felt he needed to protect himself, because Greg Gard touched him unnecessarily in the handshake line after he had gotten upset.#Badgers pic.twitter.com/hFWrEtBv1v

— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) February 20, 2022

This was not, as I understand it, an apology. Gard only explained the reasoning for his timeout.

Let’s talk about culture.

This is not the first time that Howard has been involved in an altercation with another Big Ten coach that threatened to turn violent. This was the incident last year with Maryland’s Mark Turgeon:

Howard, who received a double technical and was thrown out of the game, explained his actions thusly:

“He said to me ‘Juwan I’m not gonna let you talk to me, you don’t talk to me ever again’ and he charged at me,” Howard said. “...I was raised by my grandmother and also by Chicago. When guys charge you, it’s time to defend yourself.”

Those words resonated with a lot of people, including myself, at the time. Not all childhoods had this lesson, but in mine I learned the only way to not be a target was, in my father’s words “to make sure they learn the first time that a second time will hurt too much to be worth it.” It wasn’t until well into adulthood, when I was explaining the origin of a permanently misshapen bump on the left side of my left forehead, that I even questioned if that was the right lesson.

To say that my experience as the rare Jew in suburbia is comparable to what was going on in Coach Howard’s head when he down-slapped the Badger assistant would be ridiculous. I do not know his lived experience. I do not know what the assistant said. I cannot know what it means to a person of color to be grabbed by a white man, except I know enough people who’ve told me that would produce a visceral reaction not to try it with anybody.

I understood through my lens what he meant by “When guys charge you, it’s time to defend yourself.” That is the culture that many of us grew up in. But—and we have to agree on this—it’s not the culture of the University of Michigan, and it should not be the culture passed on to those who root or play basketball for that institution.

“Provoked?”

This is my response to anyone still trying to argue this morning that Howard’s actions are justified by Gard’s. If Howard had grabbed the sweater, let go, wagged a finger, and that had been the end of it, we could talk about how Gard’s actions reasonably precipitated Howard’s response. Howard’s response, however, is so vastly beyond the aggressiveness of Gard’s, and the aggressiveness of his assistants, that the two are not comparable. Exchanges of words are not the same as exchanges of blows.

There are three crystal clear moments when the situation heightened:

1. When Howard grabbed Gard’s sweater and yelled “Don’t touch me!” which brought the UW assistants and Williams over.
2. When Krabbenhoft slid in and said whatever precipitated Howard’s hit, which besides Howard’s reaction, appeared to induce the policeman and the Big Ten official to stop pulling the coaches apart and refocus on Krabbenhoft.
3. When Howard slapped Krabbenhoft.

Two of those three moments were Juwan’s alone. I am receptive to reasons Howard had those reactions, but short of Krabbenhoft slinging certain words I think we would have heard about by now, there’s no valid interpretation of #1 and #3 that I can think of which would absolve Howard of his responsibility to deescalate.

In other words, stop arguing that these were equal. The worst actor in this whole situation was clearly Michigan’s head coach Juwan Howard.

What happens next?

There will be consequences. Howard will no doubt be suspended and fined for at least the maximum two games that the league can enforce under its sportsmanship policy.

Re. Juwan Howard's impending suspension will be, per the Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy, the league office is limited to 2 games and a $10,000 fine.

That said, anticipate the league and Michigan to jointly issue the penalty, meaning U-M can add its own additional games/sanctions. pic.twitter.com/k24mk35wNz

— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) February 20, 2022

As Quinn says, no doubt the incident with Turgeon, for which Howard narrowly escaped suspension, will factor. Michigan can (and probably will) choose to join the league and add to the suspension. Manuel’s crafted release suggests Michigan expects disciplinary actions, and leaves open the door to add to it:

I expect the league will hand out the maximum two games to Howard, and Michigan will tack on one or two extra. I would not be surprised if it’s more—up to the end of the regular season—because they have five games left and the season ends in less than two weeks.

His comments after the Turgeon incident don’t help his cause. That too was an explanation, which is closer to a justification than an apology. It suggests Howard believes, as a lot of us who grew up in the United States in the 20th Century grew up believing, that using violence to protect yourself and your people is how an adult should act.

I also fully understand that Howard’s perspective can be informed by experiences and history that I cannot fathom. Most non-white people I know would experience a visceral reaction from being grabbed in an authoritive manner by a white man, to the point where that’s something I know not to do. That wasn’t Juwan’s explanation, and not an excuse, but certainly part of the context.

None of that context changes the simple truth: for the head coach of Michigan basketball, this was not acceptable. If Michigan uses this opportunity to impress anything upon its head coach, it’s “Walk away.” The next time Howard speaks publicly, I want to hear that’s the plan.

What should it be?

Three or four games would cover the severity, in my opinion. Firing him would seem drastic. His action sparked a melee that could have resulted in serious injuries. It was also a slap, an action which we’d call a 15-yard penalty in football, a 2-minute roughing minor in hockey, or a “routine basketball play” on the same court an hour earlier. The severity of the infraction is due to Howard’s position as head coach, and the context that led to further violence between the teams.

I would not expect any other team would fire their head coach for this unless, e.g. Georgia and Tom Crean, they were just looking for an excuse to fire the coach without paying his buyout. Therefore any argument, to my mind, that Michigan should fire Howard rests in a pretention that Michigan is a holier place. In case that's not clear: it is not.

I also think it would be a very bad look for Michigan to fire Howard over this. While culture does not excuse actions, it’s a framework for understanding them. That goes both ways: Howard has a responsibility to Michigan to uphold the institution’s values while representing them, but Michigan has a responsibility to Howard to understand it doesn’t mean the same thing to a Black man from a poor neighborhood in South Chicago to be grabbed by a white man as the reverse. Pretending there isn’t a difference contributes to a cycle that has kept excellent Black coaches underemployed of the coaching profession, redefining being affected by a systemic problem into a reason to perpetuate it.

That in no way lets Howard off the hook. The school has to be very clear that it’s Howard’s responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

What about the Whatabouts?

• Wisconsin recruiting director Kyle Blackbourn, the guy who deleted a tweet of himself with a bloody tooth, should probably get a suspension for escalating things, grabbing Williams, and shove-punching Saddi.
• Wisconsin assistant coach Sharif Chambliss was one of the instigators and apparently tackled Williams. The video isn’t enough but if he assaulted a player he could be in serious trouble, including the legal kind.
• Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft, the guy who got hit by Howard, added himself to the argument and seemed to be the prime instigator.
• Michigan’s Terrence Williams II was in the middle of things, and put himself there. He also took several swings at Neath.
• Wisconsin player Jahcobi Neath entered the fray, was removed, and reentered to throw punches at Williams and Diabate.
• Michigan’s Moussa Diabate entered when Neath did, and punched at him twice before they were pulled apart.
• Wisconsin’s Greg Gard returned after most of the scuffle had ended and yelled something at the Michigan players.
• Michigan’s Caleb Houstan reacted to whatever was said and charged Gard but was held back by a teammate.
• Wisconsin’s Chris Vogt was on the periphery, but kept trying to swim in and engage.
• Wisconsin’s Brad Davison was also on the periphery, and afterwards was trying to reengage hostilities by leading the Badgers towards where Michigan was going to the locker room, under the guise of singing “Varsity” with the students.

Barring more damning video evidence or testimony regarding Chambliss’s actions I would expect Howard to get the biggest punishment, and 1- or 2-game suspensions for the above.

Besides the officials and officers, a number of players and coaches did more than stand around, actively diffusing the violence and herding players back to the locker rooms. For Michigan, Saddi Washington and Chris Hunter did the most of anybody to break up the fighting. S&C coach Jon Sanderson and Jaren Faulds were in there holding people at bay without escalating. Wisconsin’s Tyler Wahl pulled several of his teammates back, and also pulled Williams out of there and calmed him down. Johnny Davis held Gard back then removed Chambliss from the middle of Michigan’s group. Tyler Higginbottom removed teammates. Analyst Andrew Van Handel was ducking in and out break up the sides and diffuse tensions.

If you’re engaging today with Wisconsin fans, show them the videos if they think their side is completely blameless, but first acknowledge that the worst actor in all of this was Juwan Howard, and that you are appalled by it. Or—you know you can do this—don’t engage with them.

As for Sparties who hop in your mentions, you should know that long before this or the Maryland incident the RCMB has been a nest of perpetual, unchecked racist dog whistling about Howard. Check them out before replying, and if they seem to be looking for a fight, block and move on.

Again, if you are out there talking about this, please start with Howard was the most wrong.

Can a Class B technical be issued to an entire program? Asking for a friend.

Wisconsin athletics says there are staff who are injured. They expect the Big Ten to act quickly.

— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) February 20, 2022

lol.