Leaked recording

On June 22, 2021, a surreptitious recording of a meeting, in which several members of the 2020–21 team directed criticism at Gard, was leaked to the Wisconsin State Journal and subsequently posted to YouTube.^[7][8][9]

2022 postgame fight

A fight took place involving Gard after the February 20, 2022 game between the Michigan Wolverines and the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center. During the game, Gard took two timeouts in the final minute as the Badgers held a significant lead over the Wolverines. Gard explained in an interview after the fight that the timeout was taken to reset the play as the ball had not yet crossed into Michigan's side of the court within 10 seconds, which would have led to a turnover. After the timeout, Wisconsin was able to advance the ball into Michigan's half of the court and the game ended soon afterward in a Badgers win with a score of 77-63.^[10][11]

During the handshakes between the teams, Michigan Coach Juwan Howard appeared to initially ignore Coach Greg Gard and then attempted to walk past as Gard approached Howard and stopped him for the usual post-game handshake. Howard stated that he did not want to be touched and expressed his displeasure with the timeouts, grabbing Gard by the shirt at which point others began to separate them. Gard and Howard began yelling at one another, even as they were separated by their respective squads and security personnel, leading to a verbal escalation between the two coaches.^[12] As things continued to escalate, Howard reached in and struck Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft with an open hand.^[13] This led to both teams to begin fighting each other. While most of the fight was pushes and shoves, at least three players threw punches; forward Moussa Diabaté for Michigan who was a starter for the game,^[11] forward Terrance Williams II for Michigan, and guard Jahcobi Neath for Wisconsin.^[10] The actions of both coaches and the players were condemned,^[12] which Howard receiving the majority for his physical contact against Krabbenhoft.^[13] The Big Ten Conference released a statement that they were reviewing the postgame events.^[14] The following day, Gard was fined $10,000 for his actions for violating the Big Ten's sportsmanship policy while Howard was suspended for the remainder of Michigan's season and fined $40,000.^[15]