Michigan coach Juwan Howard ejected as benches clear vs. Maryland at Big Ten tournament
Michigan Wolverines men's basketball coach Juwan Howard was ejected during a media timeout of his team's Big Ten tournament quarterfinal victory against the Maryland Terrapins on Friday.
The second-year coach, whose top-seeded Wolverines built a lead in the second half after trailing by double digits in the first, was talking to his players heading into a timeout.
Howard erupted and began approaching the Maryland bench. Officials had to break up the scrum that had formed after the benches cleared and ejected Howard in the process, while Maryland coach Mark Turgeon also received a technical.
Michigan assistant coaches had to hold Howard back as he walked off the opposite end of the court. Longtime Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli, who has served as an assistant under Howard for two seasons, replaced Howard on the Wolverines' bench.
Michigan pulled away in the second half for the 79-66 win.
After the game, Howard said Turgeon "charged at (me)" while the Michigan coach attempted to converse with the officials after he disagreed with an out-of-bounds call on the opposite end of the court and that he acted out of defense.
"And it's tough to communicate when it's loud and obviously you have masks on," Howard said. "So (Turgeon) saw that I was out of the box. He tells the referee look at my feet, I'm out of the box, I'm like, 'Oh, c'mon man, this is what we're doing today? You're worried about my feet being out of the box?'
"And so he said to me, 'Juwan I'm not going to let you talk to me. You don't talk to me every game.' And he charged at me. And that right there, I don't know how you guys were raised, but how I was raised — by my grandmother and Chicago, because I was raised by Chicago and I grew up on the south side: when guys charge you, it's time to defend yourself. Especially when a grown man charges you.
"I went right into defense mode."
Howard said he apologized to his team for responding in that manner "because that's not how you handle situations like that."
In his postgame comments, Turgeon confirmed the skirmish was the escalation of animosity built during the prior meetings this season between the teams.
"This has been going on for three games. I've been doing this for 34 years and I've called the conference office. I called the commissioner about what transpired in the first two games. And I said I wasn't gonna take it the third game. And so I stood up for my team, I stood up for me," Turgeon told reporters after the game (via 247Sports). "All I said is don't talk to me. Don't talk to me. ... Never backed down, I just stood there and said don't talk to me. That's it.
"The league is well aware of what's transpired the first two games and they'll handle it from here. But I was, I thought, as professional as I could try to be in the moment, standing up for myself, 34 years of doing it the right way, and for Maryland basketball. So that's all I did, was stood up for myself and Maryland program, and said don' talk to me."
Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.