The Dude wrote:

Very ugly ending, shocking stuff.

Juwan Howard threw an open hand fist
 

Uh, I don’t think a fist can be open hand.

But yeah, very ugly.  Juwan should be either fired or suspended for the rest of the year.  It set off a melee. Very ugly. (And he went in closed fist, but opened his fist and kind of slapped him, before closing his fist and threatening another punch - but whether his fist was closed or open, makes no real difference).

As for the endgame, I think generally you may be right, though one or two possessions at this point doesn’t mean anything. Juwan seemed to be pressing the walk ins for no reason, so Gard called time out to reset the 10 second clock so his walk one could get the ball up the court. If Juwan doesn’t like Gard coaching his walk one the way he coaches regularly, then he should press the scrubs with the game decided.

So, in the press conference, Howard did not offer the slightest bit of regret and insisted that what upset him was the TO.

The hilarity of that, he's full court pressing against the back of the Wisconsin bench but they are not allowed to call a TO in that situation in his mind.

There was some incident last year involving Howard and Maryland in which Maryland claimed Howard threatened to kill Turgeon! Not a great look for a Head Coach

 

You gotta wonder if Michigan is almost better off with Martelli guiding them through the Big 10 Tournament.

The "logical" thing to do would be to suspend him for the remainder of the regular season. But if the Big 10 wants to get the message through that they will not tolerate this, he should instead be suspended for the Big 10 Tournament.

The Dude wrote:

Very ugly ending, shocking stuff.

Juwan Howard threw an open hand fist at a Wisconsin assistant, which makes you wonder if he can survive the incident. Looks to me like some blame to go around  

I actually think the important of the computer models, has led to Coaches putting more thought than ever into the last seconds of lopsided games, which was the root of the incident.  

 

This is really a misleading and thoughtless take.  First, when you say something like "looks to me like some blame to go around", you are implying that either both coaches are equally at fault or if not equally, then both contributed towards creating this incident.  So, here's what Greg Gard did:

1.  He called a timeout with under a minute left to clear his bench.
2. He called a second timeout with 15 seconds left because Michigan, by not pulling their starters and pressing Wisconsin in the backcourt, was obviously still playing the game (i.e. not allowing Wisconsin to dribble out the clock) so why shouldn't he still be coaching it?  He wanted to avoid a 10 second violation so he called a timeout to reset the 10 seconds. 
3. He noticed that Juwan Howard was angry and hesitated to even enter the handshake line to begin with.
4. Once the coaches were to pass one another and it was clear that Juwan refused to look at Gard, Gard gently grabbed his elbow to get his attention to tell him something.  Am pretty sure it wasn't to gloat about the victory.  Thomas pointed this out as the only possible defensible thing Juwan did but also added the assumption that Gard's intent was to confront or admonish Juwan.  Knowing the kind of person Gard is, I would say maybe to confront and definitely not to admonish.  By the way, this is not even close to the first time that a coach touched another coach in this manner, to either explain or apologize or get his attention.  No matter where you come down on the gesture, it can't possibly justify Juwan's reactions.

Here is what Juwan did:

1.  He did not pull his starters when Gard pulled Wisconsin's starters
2. He had his team play the final 15 seconds as if they still had a chance to win the game, by pressing Wisconsin in the backcourt when Wisconsin was ready to dribble out the clock.
3. He visibly avoided the handshake line at first.
4. He showed horrible sportsmanship while walking through the handshake line.
5. He became outraged and then violent, hitting assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft in the face.  And nearly incited a riot in the process.
6. He claimed self-defense after the incident because Gard stood in his way on the handshake line.  Self-defense?  Have you seen these two individuals?

My take:

I completely understand the first timeout to get the bench players in.  I wish more coaches would do this under similar circumstances.

I can't say I enjoyed seeing Gard take the second time out, but after watching Michigan's first team press Wisconsin's bench players when the game was already decided, I do understand it.  Anyone who is unhappy with the second timeout should be more unhappy with Michigan pressing, or if not, should be fine with it all.

It was Juwan's emotions that caused this.  He was upset by the timeouts, or at least the second timeout, but he helped cause this by having his team press.   His petulant behavior helped cause this.  Perhaps his entitled attitude helped cause this.  And regardless of whether Gard had any business touching Juwan or not (and we have seen coaches do this countless numbers of times...often, it's  a handshake followed by one of the coaches grabbing the arm of the other to say something....all without incident), the action that resulted can not begin to be justified.  

So no, I wouldn't represent this ugly incident as "some blame to go around."  That's beyond misleading.

Final point, computer numbers have NOTHING to do with this.  If Wisconsin was concerned about it's numbers, then why pull the starters to begin with?  The NET does not even use margin of victory in its calculations.  (It did initially but no longer does at all.)  And, my understanding is that the other advanced stat folks who do use margin of victory as part of their calculations cap this at 10 points so as to not encourage piling on.

It would be nice if The Dude actually put more thought into his posts, rather than meet his personal goals of posting information the quickest and the most often.  As it's said in journalism, better to get it right.
 

Thomas, agreed all around

Also, Darryl Hammond and Greg Gard are aging into the same person.  Dead ringer.

I'd be for a lenient punishment, if he said in the press conference something along the lines of  "I am the Head Coach and there's no excuse for hitting someone as the leader of the team I need to set that example for my kids"

His actual press conference passed all blame away from him.  I'm not sure I'd want that guy to lead my basketball program. 

Lets be real, if the program was doing very well, he'd be safe, since they're teetering on the bubble year 3, he may not be, unfortunately in reality it comes down to that.  I'd take it Michigan is going to press him to do another one where he shows some actual contrition

Blount lost a whole
Season after punching a guy after a football game. Howard, leader of “student-athletes” incites a fight between “student-athletes” and we talk about it as though he played in the game.

I lived Howard. Loved him. This is the second time. Not sure we need to wait for the third.

Never liked the Fraud Five since our game against them.
But thought some of them had grown up. One would have thought Howard in particular as he leads young men and should set an example. And as  a big man, Howard bears a special responsibility to be careful how he wields his physical strength, particular offensively. Yet what he did was not acceptable from anyone of any size.
   If he did something with Turgeon--and actually if he didn't, in real life, Howard shouldn't be allowed on the court or in the arena this year. At a minimum. Not sure at all that will happen, but that's what should happen.
   Remember what happened to our coach who didn't touch anyone (and didn't do a number of things).. Given the predilections of this current era, one would think that attacking someone post-handshake line would be a major transgression.