Whiteness wins again. In the aftermath of the scrum, which took place on Sunday afternoon between Michigan and Wisconsin, it was sparked by Badgers coach Greg Gard and accelerated by UM coach Juwan Howard. Howard’s suspension will last for five games, which means he’ll be back for the Big Ten Tournament. He’s also been fined $40,000 for hitting Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft, the Badgers assistant who put his hands on one of Howard’s players, in the face. Michigan will also be temporarily without forwards Terrance Williams and Moussa Diabate, who each received one-game suspensions. Given the situation, the suspension was inevitable. White men in leadership positions are given more latitude than black men. This was the second time that Howard got into a situation with an opposing coach during a game. Howard and Turgeon were both involved in the Big Ten Tournament. Howard apologized to his players and their families, his staff, and the Michigan fans around the world. I would like to apologize to Joe Krabbenhoft and his family.
Howard never mentions Gard's name.
The conference fined the Wisconsin coach $10,000 for violating its sportsmanship policy, but nobody on the staff was suspended. The only member of the program that won't be playing is guard Jahcobi Neath.
They only suspended the Black people.
Coach Gard and his staff had no intention of provoking or inciting anything. I would like to commend those on our staff and student-athletes who were trying to de-escalate the situation, but I forgot to accept any responsibility for any wrongdoings on the Badgers.
Gard gets away with things.
Kobe King, one of the few Black players Wisconsin has on its roster each season, left the program in 2020. The final straw for King was when Helland, the team's former strength and conditioning coach, used the N-word around a group of players.
“I owned it. I said the word,” Helland told ESPN.
Gard's program was in the news last season after a 37 minute audiotape was sent to the Wisconsin State Journal. Gard, three assistant coaches, and seven seniors had a meeting that got ugly. Wisconsin went into damage control mode and threw their support behind Gard.
Gard has had a racist on staff, ran a program so toxic that someone within or close to it recorded a private meeting and released it to the press, and put his hands on Howard which started Sunday.
Gard has not been suspended for any of it.
Gard gets the benefit of the doubt. When he told his team that they had to stick together, the head coach showed us that he still believes in slavery. Both feet are needed. Everyone needs to stay on the plantation. I can't have anyone leave the plantation.
In 2020, we found out that the former head coach of Wichita State was a violent madman after he was accused of punching a player, body-slamming another, and mocking Native American heritage. There was an investigation that led to Marshall's resignation and an agreed-upon settlement of $8.25 million.
Mark Few was arrested for a drunk driving last fall. His punishment? He missed the season opener. The three games against Eastern Oregon, Lewis-Clark State, and Dixie State were very competitive and the Bulldogs won by a total of 137 points.
The idea that a Black coach like Howard did something so egregious that he deserves a five-game suspension isn’t the issue. It’s that white coaches do things just as bad, or worse, and receive little to no punishment. For instance, in 2012 Mike Rice was initially only suspended for three games at Rutgers before he got fired. However, if it wasn’t for the video of him shoving, grabbing, and throwing balls at players while using gay slurs during practice becoming a national story, you could make the case that Rice might have kept his job.
If we learned anything from the FBI's investigation into college basketball, it's that black coaches suffer more than white coaches. While white head coaches like Sean Miller, Will Wade, and Rick Pitino got off because of the investigation, black assistant coaches like Merl Code, Chuck Person, and Anthony Bland lost their jobs, paid fines, and faced jail time.
When you add the context, the punishments are obvious. For anyone who still thinks that this column was written to vouch for Juwan Howard, it wasn't true. It was written to show you that Greg Gard and other white coaches are not suspended because of Howard's actions.
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