Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing has offered his opinion on the college basketball post-game handshake line following the fight that broke out at Sunday’s Michigan-Wisconsin game.
Ewing spoke on the Sportsnet 590 The FAN show and said he would be fine with putting an end to the handshake line.
“I don’t like the handshake line,” Ewing said. “I don’t like it because anything is possible. You’re just getting through a heated battle, a heated game and anything can happen to make things worse, which is what happened in that situation. If it’s my call, I think we should just take away the handshake line. Just do like we did last year in COVID. You wave bye and you move on.”
Ewing, who played for Georgetown from 1981 to ’85, said he doesn’t even think he used to have handshake lines when he played.
Sunday’s dispute between Michigan’s Juwan Howard and Wisconsin’s Greg Gard turned into a physical altercation. This ultimately resulted in Howard receiving a five-game suspension along with a $40,000 fine. Gard did not get suspended, but has a $10,000 fine.
The debate about the handshake line has been sparked since the incident. Some people, like Ewing, think the handshake line is the problem, while others disagree. For instance, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said he thinks the teams need to learn how to shake hands, instead of abolishing the tradition.
The NCAA has not issued any statements about the handshake line moving forward.
