Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Michigan Tuesday: Five

I'm going to start with an old professional wrestling analogy, because the kerfuffle in Madison has taken a bit of a wresting like turn.  Back in my youth, King Kong Bundy of the WWF would ask the ref for a 5 count instead of the traditional 3 to win his wresting match.   The purpose was to show the other wrestlers he was better than everyone else.   My purpose here is not to make fun of a serious situation, but this situation in Madison is turning out to be a bit comical.   I got hit harder in NYC this past weekend walking around Times Square. 


First thing first, Juwan got suspended 5 games which feels to be the proper amount.   It ends up being about a two-week suspension, Terrance Williams and Moussa Diabate will miss the Rutgers game.  Juwan will pay a $40,000 fine and Greg Gard will pay $10,000, the Wisconsin player that was throwing hands will also miss a game.   I would have given Gard a game for being a prick and instigating this thing, but at the end of the day he was just using words and not hands.   Greg did get the maximum amount fine the Big Ten can levy.   The Big Ten max suspension is 2 games, so Michigan added on another 3 and $30,000 to Juwan's penalty.  Again, rightfully so.  

Michigan and Juwan released an appropriate statement.  The funny part of this entire situation is Wisconsin's AD playing the victim card and basically saying they're not at fault in any way.  

Chris, that was a clown show response.


Moving on:

Michigan will host Rutgers, Illinois, MSU, and Iowa before heading to Ohio State to close out the season.    Phil Martelli will lead the program while Juwan is suspended.   

Michigan will probably need to win 3-5 of those games and a couple in the Big Ten Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament.   This team will either come out and play with a renewed spirit or just the opposite.   I'm hoping for some inspired play and a nice little run but on the other hand, it wouldn't' be all bad if this season came to end sooner rather than later.  

  • Nice to see the football team back practicing again.  This is the time of year, where the team bonds and gets better with every practice.   Time for some new players to step up and lead.  

6 comments:

MichiganMan said...

I like Juan Howard I always liked him I hope he learned that violence is not the solution to every problem.... Through all this I would like to see our team make the NCAA tournament and J. Howard comes out as a better man and leads this team to at least a elite eight or final four appearance....

Blue for life
Love one another

Rudy said...

When you are the U of Wisconsin, you have to announce the morale high ground on every opportunity to compensate for the fact....you are still just the UofW. A school that wins a decent amount of games considering it gets average talent but realizes it's forever a JV program so must take every opportunity to take the Varsity down a notch. Their coach is a dbag and the AD just an enabler. Juwan has to own his action but if the dbag lets him pass by, this ends up being just some vitriol spewed between coaches....which happens often. Coach Howard will be on a short leash now and will likely get worse punishment if the behavior happens again.

BlueManGroup said...

I found Izzo's comments in the Free Press a bit rich, considering his antics with his own players. In a world of cancel culture, I didnt see one pundit call for Juwan's job. The coach is not only beloved by fans and alumni, but highly respected by his peers and pundits. Im not sure we'd see the same response if Harbaugh had slapped an opposing team's assistant.

Chowman said...

The only people calling for Juwan to get fired are snowflakes who's only exposure to competitive sports was receiving a participation trophy. Again, anyone that's competed at any level and won or been closing to being on a winning team knows that tempers flare from time to time. that's what competing is about, 2 sides giving it their all, till there's no more to give. There's a range of emotions. Nobody likes losing, and handshakes at the end of games are quite frankly stupid. too much raw emotion, a nod or wave would suffice! Love the people that are saying "if I'd of done that at my job". Yeah, no shit, your job is not a sport. Sports aren't real life. In theory, at your job, you're all "supposed" to be teammates. We all know that doesn't always hold true. Hey would a GM line worker get fired cause he got into an altercation with Ford line worker at Costco? um, no, so stop it!

ScottyDoggs said...

Howard was set-up by events... the Wisconsin coach was blatantly mad because Howard was mad. (Just kidding), but how situation should have been resolved is Howard knock out "cold" Wisconsin coach, while the Michigan players sang "Momma said knock you out" by LL Cool J.

MichiganMan said...

Shah Blue I agree with your Comment...

Blue for life
Love one another