Georgetown HC Patrick Ewing Favors Ending Handshake Line

Well, that didn't take long. Less than a week after the hand of Michigan head coach Juwan Howard met the face of Wisconsin hoops assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft, another big-name college coach is pointing the finger at the handshake line.

Georgetown head coach Patrick Ewing blames the postgame handshake line for Howard's actions -- no, seriously -- and would like to do away with the postgame traditional altogether.

"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," Ewing said on the Smith and Jones podcast.

Who needs sportsmanship? If you lose, you pout your way back to the locker room, and if you win, you gloat as much as you want once the final buzzer sounds. After all, it's not like you have to show your opponent any respect or decency for the full minute and 15 seconds that it takes to shake a few hands and utter a couple of "good games."

"I don't like the handshake line," Ewing said. "I don't like it because anything is possible."

Ewing also told Smith and Jones, "When I played back then, I don't even think they had handshake lines."

Wrong, Patrick. Handshake lines have been around long before you played the game.

Howard is the first coach in decades, maybe longer, to become so heated that he attacked an opposing coach, but according to Ewing, it's the handshake line that's the issue. Right...

This heated handshake line has Ewing so worked up that he'd like replace the line with a wave.

"If it's my call, I think we should just take away the handshake line," added Ewing. "Just do like we did last year in COVID. You wave bye and you move on."

Whoever thought the madness of college basketball was reserved for March never heard Patrick Ewing rant in February.

 

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