Michigan’s Juwan Howard lucky he avoided harsher punishment; players caught in between | Opinion

Moussa Diabate turned 20 a month ago. The Michigan basketball freshman forward is old enough to drive a car but not rent one. He can vote but he can’t buy a beer. He can buy a lottery ticket but can’t enter a casino in Las Vegas.
In other words, the state doesn’t trust that Diabate is ready to (fully) gamble, to drink, and corporate America doesn’t trust him to sign a contract with Avis. Which means that parts of the state and parts of society don’t consider him an adult, which is good, because he is not.
But he’s not a kid, either.
He exists in the messy, undefined, gray haze between two cognitive spaces, like thousands of other college athletes in this country, like millions of other citizens his age.
It helps to think about this space when considering the suspension he received from the Big Ten on Monday evening for his part in the melee after Wisconsin beat Michigan the day before. Diabate took two swings, enough to warrant more than the single-game suspension he got.
And if he were the only one to take a swing during the handshake line then he’d likely be out a lot longer. Yet he wasn’t. He was parroting his coach, Juwan Howard, who took a swing at Wisconsin’s assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft.
THE AFTERMATH: Michigan players' short suspensions mean Wolverines have plenty to play for
So was Michigan forward Terrance Williams II. So was Wisconsin guard Jahcobi Neath. Like Diabate, they were suspended for a game. Like Diabate, they were mimicking the head basketball coach at the University of Michigan.
This isn’t to suggest the players aren’t responsible for those swings, for breaking protocol in the handshake line, for losing their cool and exhibiting poor sportsmanship. An argument could be made that they were fortunate to get off with a one-game suspension.
By suspending the players for a single game, the Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren told us that college sports are played by individuals that aren’t quite adults. By rubber-stamping Michigan's suspension of Howard for five games — the remainder of the regular season — the Big Ten is telling us that coaches are responsible for leading the players.
That’s the message no one should forget. A message Howard did forget when he took a swing at Krabbenhoft.
In that moment, he failed to lead. That failure is why he will miss the next five games.
On Monday night, after the conference announced its punishment, the Michigan coach was finally ready to acknowledge as much.
"After taking time to reflect on all that happened, I realize how unacceptable both my actions and words were, and how they affected so many. I am truly sorry,” Howard said in a statement. "I am offering my sincerest apology to my players and their families, my staff, my family and the Michigan fans around the world. I would like to personally apologize to (Krabbenhoft) and his family, too."
Howard is fortunate the suspension wasn’t longer.
The swing he took could have cost him his job. Because it wasn’t just a single swing. It was a swing that led to other swings.
Initially, Howard was adamant that he was merely defending himself and that he had a right to be angry when Wisconsin’s head coach Greg Gard, called a timeout with 15 seconds left in a game that the Badgers had well in hand — they were leading by 14.
[ Tom Izzo 'bothered' by Juwan Howard incident; 'reminded me of Malice in the Palace' ]
Howard felt disrespected. He carried that into the handshake line. When he and Gard met, he told Gard he’d remember the timeout and tried to keep moving ahead. Gard should have let him keep moving. Instead, he grabbed his left elbow to hold him up to explain why he’d taken the timeout.
Howard told him not to touch him. He grabbed Gard’s shirt. Gard grew heated, too. They were separated.
Meanwhile, a group of players and coaches gathered a few feet away, including Krabbenhoft, who appeared to physically move Williams II to the side. Howard spotted this, took a step toward the developing scrum, and took the swipe at Krabbenhoft.
It grew uglier from there.
Neither Gard nor Krabbenhoft drew suspensions, though Gard was fined $10,000 (Howard was docked $40,000). Perhaps the video wasn’t conclusive enough for the Big Ten to suspend Krabbenhoft, or perhaps it was too difficult to conclude intent.
Clearly, though, the assistant coach made the situation worse, and deserved at least a fine.
As for Gard?
He had no business stopping Howard. He certainly had no excuse to grab him. His action was one of several dominoes that led to the ugliest scene in college basketball this season. The Big Ten agreed when it fined him for what it said was a violation of its sportsmanship policy, then soft-pedaled its justice by refusing to suspend him for at least a game.
That said, 15 seconds passed after Gard grabbed Howard and Howard hit Krabbenhoft in the face and head with his open hand. Howard had no excuse to take the swing.
None.
Howard, Michigan athletic director Manuel and others will reconvene after the regular season ends to determine if he should coach in the Big Ten tournament. Manuel said in a statement Monday that “there is no room at U-M for the behavior we saw (Sunday).”

If he believes that, and if his bosses believe that, then Howard won’t coach again until next fall. Because he took a swing. Because he showed a trio of youngsters it was OK to take a swing. Because it wasn’t the first time he lost his composure on the court as a head coach at U-M; last year he threatened to kill then-Maryland coach Mark Turgeon during an in-game shouting match in the Big Ten tournament.
Sunday was the second time in less than a year that Howard momentarily forgot his role at the University of Michigan. Yes, he was hired to win games. But he was also hired to mentor and teach the players who come to him somewhere between childhood and adulthood, to help them navigate a tricky time in life.
He didn’t do that in Madison. He took a step toward repairing the damage when he apologized, and emphasized the point in his statement:
“I speak a lot about being a Michigan man and representing the University of Michigan with class and pride, I did not do that, nor did I set the right example in the right way for my student-athletes. I will learn from my mistake and this mistake will never happen again. No excuses!"
No more excuses, indeed. For the next misstep will surely be his last misstep as the men’s basketball coach at U-M. He has the rest of the regular season to reconsider how to lead the youngsters that look up to him.
Because they do. The Big Ten’s punishment reminded us just how much.
Follow Shawn Windsor on Twitter @shawnwindsor.