Depends on what you mean by "initiated" it. Howard spent the final minute of the game staring down the Badger bench, then cursed at Gard as he walked by in the handshake line.
It was upon the cursing that Gard grabbed Howard's arm I assume to tell him why he called the timeout and Howard was having none of it. Howard then grabbed Gard by the shirt with a double fist clinch and started swearing even more at him.
I mean we can talk all day long about Gard grabbing Howard, but the fact that prior to that Howard lowered his facemask and swore at Gard...to me that started it. People saying you can't grab a guy, well you shouldn't be trash talking and swearing at a guy, either. That was the root of the whole thing. Howard couldn't resist trash talking the opposing head coach as he walked by. All Howard had to do was walk by without saying anything, but he wasn't mature enough to hold back.
Then, Krabbenhoff escalated it by being the douche bag that he is.
Plenty of blame to go around, but Howard is lucky to have a job. The head coach cannot do what he did. And, the anger is misplaced. Don't press and there won't be any timeouts. Press as if there's still a competition, you can't be mad when the other team treats it like it is still a competition.
Howard is lucky he has a job today. He is lucky he is a legendary alum there. He is lucky he won a Big Ten title and had a nice recruiting class. If that were Tom Crean, who is on the seat at Georgia, for example, he would have been fired last night.
