Juwan Howard ‘truly upset’ with himself for Michigan-Wisconsin brawl

Juwan Howard, speaking for the first time since he was suspended on Feb. 21 for taking a swing at Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft, apologized for the incident.

“I can come with a thousand excuses, but I’m not. I take full ownership for my actions,” Howard told reporters Wednesday.

Howard, upset with Wisconsin coach Greg Gard for calling a timeout late in an already decided game, took a swing at Gard’s assistant in the handshake line.

“I could talk about the timeout,” Howard said. “We could discuss the pull on the arm. We can talk about the words that were exchanged with coaches. But all that will be excuses. The main thing is that was not the right way how I should carry myself as a head coach at the University of Michigan. I was truly upset with myself.”

Howard was suspended for Michigan’s final five regular season games, but will be back on the Wolverines sideline for Thursday’s first-round Big Ten tournament matchup with Indiana.

“I want to be a better person. I want to be a better coach,” he said. “I feel that was the right thing to do to help improve as a person. I got a chance to really evaluate and see what areas I can improve on. And that is not just because of now, but that’s going to be for the future as well because I enjoy being here and I enjoy being a leader this program.”

The incident was not the first blow-up for the former NBA star. Howard got into a shouting match with Maryland coach Mark Turgeon and needed to be restrained by his assistant coaches during the 2020 Big Ten Tournament.

“I’m sorry. I hurt a lot of people,” Howard said. “I hurt my family. I hurt my players and their families. I hurt my staff. I hurt the Michigan family, the Michigan alumni base. A lot of people got hurt during that moment. And I’m still hurting.

“I know there’s going to be a big microscope on me every time that I coach, what are my emotions like, how I’m going to communicate with my players. I know I’m not a perfect person and the mistake that I made, I will try to improve. But there was growth and I have learned during the process and I will continue to keep learning.”

Howard’s Michigan squad could conceivably play Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament title game, but faces an uphill battle to do so. The Wolverines are currently on the bubble to reach the NCAA Tournament. As of Wednesday morning, gambling odds projected them as significantly more likely than not to make it into the Big Dance.