Michigan basketball: Could Wolverines fire Juwan Howard for throwing a punch?

Michigan basketball head coach Juwan Howard may lose his job for punching an opposing team’s assistant coach.

Things got ugly in Madison, Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon, as Michigan basketball head coach Juwan Howard took a swing at a Badgers assistant after a tough loss to Greg Gard’s team.

Howard took exception to Gard calling a timeout when the game was out of reach. He let him know it after the game. While players and assistants were able to put some distance between the two Big Ten head coaches, frustrations boiled over for Howard, resulting in him punching a Wisconsin assistant in the face. He may have talked about it afterwards, but he could get fired.

Does Howard survive this horrible moment for all the college basketball world to see?

Michigan basketball: Will Wolverines fire Juwan Howard for starting a brawl?

Had Howard made contact with an opposing player, he would be fired immediately. If The Ohio State University can fire legendary head football coach Woody Hayes for striking a Clemson player on the field decades ago, Michigan would not tolerate that whatsoever in 2022. With this being one coach hitting another, that might give him some leeway, but that is a very slim margin for him.

Ultimately, Howard striking an opposing assistant coach will give the university a pretty good reason to part ways with its underperforming head coach. Michigan is not going to the NCAA Tournament unless the Wolverines win the Big Ten Tournament. After having just gone through the zany Jim Harbaugh flirt fest on the gridiron, what a time to be alive for the Michigan faithful…

Michigan basketball press conference

Howard stated Gard made contact with him first, and that he was merely defending himself.

Greg Gard press conference

Gard claimed he was only trying to explain the timeout to Howard.

This was an ugly look, but it is not looking good for Howard to keep his job after this disaster.

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