Izzo: It'd be 'the biggest farce' to remove postgame handshake line

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo believes it'd be an overreaction to remove college basketball's traditional postgame handshake line following Sunday's heated exchange between Michigan bench boss Juwan Howard and Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft.

"That, to me, would be the biggest farce, joke, ridiculous nature of anything I've ever heard of," Izzo told reporters Monday, according to ESPN.

"We've already taught these poor 18-year-olds that when you're told to go to class and you don't like it, you can leave. We've already told these kids that if you're not happy, you can do something else. We've already told these kids that it's hard to hold them accountable.

"And now we're going to tell them to not man up and walk down a line to someone who's kicked your butt and have enough class to shake their hand is utterly ridiculous."

Howard received a five-game suspension and a $40,000 fine for making contact with Krabbenhoft. Meanwhile, Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard was docked $10,000 for violating the Big Ten's sportsmanship policy.

The sequence resulted in a postgame skirmish between both sides, which resulted in suspensions for multiple players, including Wolverines starting forward Moussa Diabate.

Izzo believes the incident can be used as a teaching moment for everyone in college basketball.

"Not shaking hands, that's typical of our country right now," Izzo said. "Instead of solving the problem, let's make an excuse and let's see if we can just, instead of confronting and demanding that it changes, let's eliminate it so that we don't have those problems. Let's try to do that."