LIKE IT IS

Michigan’s renewal has been painstaking

Michigan's Trey Burke (3) passes the ball to Tim Hardaway Jr. (10) in front of Florida's Casey Prather (24) during the second half of a regional final game in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Michigan's Trey Burke (3) passes the ball to Tim Hardaway Jr. (10) in front of Florida's Casey Prather (24) during the second half of a regional final game in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Bill Frieder, Steve Fisher, Fab Five: Michigan basketball was vibrant.

It was sizzling.

The Wolverines became the rage when Frieder was fired before the 1989 NCAA Tournament for taking a job with Arizona State before the completion of the season. Fisher stepped in, won the 1989 NCAA championship, was named head coach and signed the Fab Five, one of the most talented freshman classes ever.

They rocked and rolled, but then another name, Ed Martin, emerged. Suddenly, Ann Arbor was overrun by enforcement agencies known and feared by their initials: NCAA, FBI, IRS. Four Wolverines were accused of accepting loans totaling more than $616,000 from Martin.

With sanctions coming Michigan basketball didn’t fall off the face of the earth, but almost.

Fisher resigned amidst the scandal, and Brian Ellerbe went from interim head coach to head coach. Ellerbe was not the answer. His first team won the Big Ten, but he never finished better than seventh after that.

Tommy Amaker was hired, and he was even less of an answer, becoming synonymous with the NIT during his time there.

John Beilein racked up a school-record 22 losses during his first season, but the next season the Wolverines had nonconference victories over Duke and UCLA, teams ranked in the top five.

Suddenly, the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t another train. It is a ray of hope and sunshine for the Wolverines Nation.

Beilein comes from hearty stock. He was taught to work hard and do right. His dad was a mill worker and an apple farmer, and his cousins were the inspiration for the movie Saving Private Ryan.

Those familiar with Beilein knew he just needed some time. He’d won at every previous stop, taking Canisius, Richmond and West Virginia to the NCAA Tournament.

Michigan is 6-2 in its past three NCAA Tournaments under Beilein, including this season’s 4-0 run to the Final Four. This is a team that is as wildly talented as its uniforms are wildly loud, but sometimes it lacks discipline.

It is not a surprise the Wolverines are in the Final Four. They opened the season ranked No. 5 nationally, which was a tribute to Beilein. He came into the season counting heavily on freshmen Glenn Robinson III, Mitch McGary and Nik Stauskas, who have played well enough to dull the memory of the Fab Five despite ESPN’s constant harping.

This is a very young team. The bulk of the rotation includes two more freshmen, a junior and two sophomores, including point guard Trey Burke, who is the main cog. Burke leads the team with an 18.8 scoring average, but his assist-to-turnover ratio is astounding at more than 3-to-1 with 253 assists and 81 turnovers.

Saying this team is fun to watch would be like saying its banana peel yellow uniforms are ugly.

They scrap and claw, and in the 87-85 overtime victory over No. 1 seed Kansas they looked like they had turned the page on being young. The 79-59 victory over Florida in the Regional Final was a testament to maturity.

Yet, Saturday night against Syracuse, it will be Michigan’s biggest stage. Much of a state will be hoping for more success, especially Detroit, a city that desperately needs something to cheer during these hard economic times that has former automobile engineers waiting on tables.

That was personally experienced a few years ago at the Final Four. (And incidentally, it was my mistake in Thursday’s editions when it was reported Rick Pitino led Kentucky to the 1995 national championship. Obviously, that was the year UCLA triple-teamed Corliss Williamson and won the title over Arkansas.)

Michigan basketball is back, and it has a city and much of a state sizzling again.

Sports, Pages 17 on 04/05/2013

Upcoming Events