What did the five fingers say to the face? Slap!

If you missed it over the weekend, Michigan head basketball coach Juwan Howard struck a Wisconsin assistant with some sort of open handed slap/punch. He kind of palmed the guy in the face.

That earned him a five-game suspension, which is the rest of the regular season, so former St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli is now the acting head coach of the Wolverines:

The Wolverine will never die. Phil Martelli is here to carry the torch and get Big Blue dancing. He is the next man up.

Meeechigan is currently 14-11 and firmly on the bubble, with four straight home games against Rutgers, Michigan State, #15 Illinois, #25 Iowa, and then the season finale at #22 Ohio State. All of those teams are damn good, even the Scarlet Knights. This ain’t your grandmother’s Rutgers basketball team.

Serious question – when’s the last time Phil Martelli face a gauntlet like this one? Probably not since Jameer Nelson and Delonte West went up against Texas Tech, Wake Forest, and Oklahoma State in March Madness. I’m pretty sure Kyle Scott (the Maestro) hates Phil Martelli since he’s a Nova guy, but I’d like to see Phil get the Wolverines into the Big Dance. That would be a cool story for him.