Michigan State coach Tom Izzo says college basketball shouldn't get rid of handshake line

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Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said that any idea to eliminate the traditional postgame handshake line would be a bad idea.

The suggestion to do away with the handshake line has come up after Howard hit Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft in the face.

Izzo said that it would be the biggest farce, joke, ridiculous nature of anything he had ever heard of. We told these kids that if they were unhappy, they could do something else. We told these kids that it was hard to hold them accountable.

We are going to tell them not to man up and walk down the line with someone who kicked your butt and had enough class to shake their hand. I think the president is full of it if he said it. If the best coach in America said it, I think that's more important than this incident.

Izzo said getting rid of the handshake line would be an excuse to avoid a teachable moment.

Izzo said that it was typical of our country to not shake hands. Let's try to do that.

The Big Ten Conference fined Howard $40,000 and suspended him for five games. Gard was fined $10,000 for violating the conference's sportsmanship policy.

Howard grabbed Gard's shirt and put his finger in Gard's face after the handshake line after the game. Krabbenhoft came over in the middle of the scrum and exchanged words with Howard, who struck Krabbenhoft in the face.

The players pushed and shoved each other. Three players have been suspended for throwing punches.

It would be a mistake to do away with one of the college basketball traditions because of one incident.

Izzo said that if a team doesn't want to shake hands, 15 of his guys will walk down and shake air. We are going to shake air and then we are going to leave.