The Wisconsin Badgers rival, the Michigan Wolverines made a drastic move in college basketball on Friday. Michigan head coach Juwan Howard has parted ways with the basketball program.
The Wolverines this past season in the BIG10 conference finished with a 3-17 record and had an 8-24 overall record this season. Howard has coached at Michigan for the past five seasons. He had two more years remaining on his contract, but Michigan felt like it was time to make a change. The Michigan Wolverines played last against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the BIG10 Tournament and lost that game 66-57.
They will be looking for a new head coach and it will be interesting to see what candidates will want the job. The most successful season he had with the program was in 2020-2021 when they won the BIG10 regular season title and also were a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Howard coached there for a short time and Wisconsin Badgers head coach Greg Gard has been with Wisconsin’s program as the head coach since 2015-2016. This will maybe make Wisconsin fans more thankful for Gard.
Michigan Wolverines Head Coach Juwan Howard Will Be Remembered For Fighting With Wisconsin Badgers Head Coach Greg Gard After a Game
During BIG10 conference play in 2022, the Wisconsin Badgers were 15th in the country at the time and the Michigan Wolverines were unranked. Wisconsin won that game over Michigan 77-63. After that game was over in the handshake line, Howard and Gard went into it with each other and it escalated into a brawl.
A fight broke out between Michigan and Wisconsin during the postgame handshake line. pic.twitter.com/AiWIwyzj8w
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) February 20, 2022
What triggered it at the time was that Wisconsin had a 15-point lead at the time of it and Greg Gard called a timeout with 15 seconds remaining in the game. At the time it happened, Gard told CBS Sports after the game about Michigan Wolverines Juwan Howard by saying:
“Apparently, he didn’t like that I called a timeout to reset the 10-second call. We only had 4 seconds to get the ball past half court. I didn’t want to put my bench guys in that position of scrambling, so I took the timeout. He did not like that when he came through the handshake line.”
A couple of Wisconsin Badgers fans and other Michigan Wolverines fans responded to the Michigan basketball program parting ways with Juwan Howard as head coach:
I wonder if he punched the AD on the way out.
— Lucas (@RealLucaso345) March 15, 2024
Would imagine the Wolverines give Nate Oats a look. Given his ties to the region and UM’s facilities, seems like a natural fit.
— G (@graglita) March 15, 2024
This fan is crazy for thinking that Nate Oats would leave the Alabama Crimson Tide for the Michigan Wolverines job. However with Michigan moving on from Juwan Howard, the Wisconsin Badgers fanbase will remember him for starting a brawl.
