MELEE IN MADISON: Juwan Howard and Greg Gard postgame altercation after the Badgers beat Michigan.

First things first: I acknowledge that this is not a good situation by any stretch of the imagination. It’s ugly. But I’ve been listening to a little sports radio and watching a little ESPN this morning and analysts are acting like this is World War III. This isn’t Ukraine and Russia. This isn’t some high leverage geo-political summit. This is a dust-up at a college basketball game. Again, not ideal, but let’s be a little level headed here.

That said: Sweet sassy molassy what a moment at the end of the Michigan/Wisconsin game yesterday. Let’s reset what precipitated the whole thing:

With under 1 minute left, in a game the Badgers were clearly going to win, Greg Gard called two timeouts. The reason? He had his 3rd and 4th string players on the floor and Juwan Howard was still pressing with his 1st string players. Calling a spade a spade: It’s a breach of basketball etiquette on both parties. I’ve watched and called literally thousands of games in my lifetime and I’ve seen similar situations play out many times. You don’t continue to press when you’re down 14 with a minute left, and you don’t call timeouts when you’re up 14 with under a minute left. That simple.

So we cut to the handshake line. Other videos on the floor clearly show that as Juwan Howard was going past Greg Gard, he lifts up his mask and says, ‘I’m not going to forget that.’ That’s when Gard grabs his arm and tries to explain what he was doing calling those timeouts. When that happens, Howard says, ‘don’t f—– touch me,’ and the rest is history. Players get in the mix, Howard throws an open hand slap on Badgers assistant coach, Joe Krabbenhoft, it’s a mess.

Side note: Joe Krabbenhoft being squarely in the middle of this is simply poetry. If you followed the Badgers when Krabbenhoft was a player, NOBODY liked to get physical more than him. He would dole out punishment and take punishment. The guy lived for contact. So seeing him take that slap and not flinch isn’t a shock at all. He ate that contact like it was an afternoon snack:

I would pay big, BIG money to see Howard and Krabbenhoft in a celebrity boxing match after yesterday’s events.

Anyway, overall it was an ugly scene, and I’m sure the Big Ten will be doling out suspensions like Tic Tacs today. My guess is that Howard is suspended for the rest of the regular season, Krabby might get a game or two, and all of the players that threw punches will get at least a game. Gard might get a game too, just so the Big Ten can pretend that everyone is getting punished.

Oh, and my other favorite part of this? Juwan Howard saying after the game that he felt like he, ‘needed to protect himself,’ from Gard after Gard grabbed his arm. Juwan Howard, a former NBA player, who is 6’9, felt he needed to protect himself from this guy:

Sheesh.

PS: We also got an all time reaction from the UW Strength and Conditioning coach:

^Me circa 1998 when I finally beat Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Which led to this masterpiece:

That is art.