By now you’ve probably seen the video of Michigan basketball coach and former NBAer Juwan Howard getting into a postgame dustup with members of the Wisconsin basketball staff after losing to the Badgers Sunday afternoon. The lowlight of the clip unfolds when the 6-foot-9-inch Howard reaches over a pack of police officers, players, and coaches and slaps Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft upside the head.
Wow. Big-time college basketball coaches going at one another after a hard-fought game in February? Never seen anything like it … except for what happened at the Mullins Center in Amherst 28 years ago.
Local sports fans of a certain age certainly remember that one. No actual punches were landed, but those who were there won’t forget hearing enraged Temple coach John Chaney yelling, “I’ll kill you!,” as he charged UMass coach John Calipari.
“You remember that — when I see you, I’m going to kick your ass!,” Chaney hollered as he was restrained by UMass player Mike Williams while Calipari stood at the postgame podium.
No one was 100 percent sure what triggered Chaney’s outburst. His team had just lost a close one to the Minutemen and he was no doubt threatened by a UMass program on the rise and its brash young coach. He’d also just been told by one of his assistants that Calipari was working the officiating crew after UMass’s win.
Temple’s president suspended Chaney for one game after the episode, but less than two weeks later, the two men met again at McGonigle Hall in Philadelphia. A fan held a sign that read, “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble!,” but there were smiles and handshakes all around before and after UMass’s 1-point win.
There have been other testy times between coaches through the years. Bill Belichick’s postgame handshakes with former assistant Eric Mangini were Fredo-worthy, and baseball generals Billy Martin and Earl Weaver feuded famously throughout the 1970s. There was a night in Baltimore when Martin compared the diminutive Weaver to a 3-foot-tall local circus performer and Weaver shot back with, “I’d rather be short of stature than a mental midget!”
But it never came to blows with the Hoodie or the dugout rivals.
Red Auerbach was another story. Red backed down from no man. At the age of 66, Auerbach challenged 6-10 Moses Malone to fight during a preseason game at the Old Garden. Going waaaay back, before Game 3 of the 1957 NBA Finals, Red cold-cocked St. Louis Hawks owner Ben Kerner during a dispute about the height of the baskets at Kiel Auditorium.
“When he took a half-step toward me, I popped him,” explained Red. “You always hit first.”
There was no suspension for Boston’s grumpy legend. Auerbach was fined $300 by NBA president Maurice Podoloff, who said, “Throwing punches belongs in the Blackstone Valley League, not the NBA, but from all I hear Auerbach had some provocation.”
Wow. That’s back in the day when a cigar was just a cigar and a league commissioner would cut a coach some slack for throwing a punch before a playoff game.
It’s going to be different for Juwan Howard in 2022.
Howard was remarkably composed when he met with the media shortly after Sunday’s fracas. He explained that he was unhappy with Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard calling a timeout with 15 seconds remaining in a 15-point game. He made his objections clear in the handshake line and didn’t like Gard initiating contact (Gard appeared to grab Howard’s left elbow) in an effort to discuss the matter.
“That’s what escalated it,” said Howard.
Sorry, that’s not going to cut it. Howard is going to be suspended, possibly fired. He has to be the adult in this situation, and Michigan can’t have its coach being restrained by Wolverine players while he takes a swing at a coach from the other team. Several players threw punches after Howard’s roundhouse right.
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel Sunday said there was “no excuse” for what happened, apologized to Wisconsin, and is working with the Big Ten to determine Howard’s punishment.
Howard is 49 years old. He was part of Michigan’s famed “Fab Five,” played 18 seasons in the NBA, and was an assistant coach with the Heat from 2013-19. This is his third season as head coach at Michigan. In last year’s Big Ten tournament, he got into a beef with Maryland coach Mark Turgeon and had to be restrained by assistants after he was ejected.
He has to be better. This isn’t 1957. It isn’t 1994. Howard can’t be starting brawls at college basketball games.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @dan_shaughnessy.
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