Michigan head basketball coach Juwan Howard served his five-game suspension for punching a Wisconsin assistant coach last month and was formally reinstated by the team and the Big Ten this week.
Howard addressed the altercation on Wednesday in his first public comments since his reinstatement. While his tone was mostly apologetic and remorseful, he couldn't help opening up his press conference with several excuses for his actions.
... immediately after insisting that he would not make excuses.
“I could come with a thousand excuses, but I’m not. I take full ownership for my actions," Howard said. "I could talk about the timeout. We could discuss the pull on the arm. We could talk about the words we exchanged with coaches – but all that would be excuses."
Howard said he took "full ownership" for his actions. Then, in the very next sentence, he offered several reasons why he wasn't fully responsible, saying that he didn't want to talk about them – as if bringing up the excuses unprompted isn't "talking about" them.
To Howard's credit, however, he did apologize multiple times in this press conference – something he didn't do in his postgame comments immediately following the incident – and said he has sought therapy and counseling over the past two weeks to become "a better man."
Howard will return to the sidelines on Thursday when Michigan takes on Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament.
