Speaking of reclamation projects…

“He’s called timeout….Michigan doesn’t have a timeout, that’s a technical foul!!”

Those words, spoken by the immortal (and not in a good way) Billy Packer still ring in my ears to this day. Why you ask? Ever since I knew what college basketball was, I’ve been a Michigan Wolverine fan. I remember the team with Glen Rice and Loy Vaught cutting down the nets in the Kingdome in 1989, and I remember how a group of 5 freshmen captured the spotlight in reaching the NCAA Championship game in 1992 and then doing the same as sophomores in 1993 before Chris Webber called the timeout he didn’t have. The group I’m referring to is the Fab Five (Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King). Even though they lost those two title games, when you see baggy shorts and black socks on a basketball court today, it’s because the Fab Five were the trend-setters.

Despite the near misses in those years, the Michigan basketball program continued to excel, making NCAA Tournament appearances, winning a Big Ten Tournament title in the next 5 years. While not on the level of the UCLAs, North Carolinas and Kentuckys of the world, they were still one of the premier basketball programs in college basketball.

Today, if you ask someone about the Wolverine basketball program, they might not know what you’re talking about. “What basketball program?” might be the smart-ass response. Where did it all go wrong for Wolverine fans?

The answer to that question is complex to say the least. If you’re looking for a starting point, look no further than to February 1996. The Wolverines had a solid team led by players like Maurice Taylor, Robert Traylor and Louis Bullock. They were going to the tournament. One night, while entertaining recruit Mateen Cleaves, Maurice Taylor’s SUV rolled over when Taylor fell asleep at the wheel. Read that sentence again. A college kid from inner Detroit was driving an SUV. Seems a little “Blue Chips-like” no? The NCAA sure thought so, and decided to launch an investigation.

The NCAA found a Detroit city booster by the name of Ed Martin was gifting cars and money to Wolverine players. While I and many others believe that this is a common occurrence through most NCAA programs (see USC football for instance), the NCAA decided to come down hard on the Wolverines, placing them on probation and stripping scholarships. The Final Four banners hanging in Crisler Arena from the Fab Five days? Those were brought down too as it was found that Chris Webber accepted gifts as well. Mateen Cleaves a Michigan lean at the time, ended up going to Michigan State and was a key component of the Spartans 2000 national championship. And so the nightmare of the last 10 years for Wolverine fans began.

In summary, Michigan basketball’s bright era was tainted, the program put on probation and their intra-state rival Michigan State rose to prominence instead of being second fiddle in the state of Michigan. Every Wolverine fan knows it all goes back to that SUV. I’m not advocating paying players, but if that SUV doesn’t flip, the decade of “nuclear winter” for the Wolverine basketball program probably doesn’t happen.

Coach Steve Fisher resigned under all the scrutiny and Brian Ellerbe was hired to take his place. For 4 years, the Wolverines went nowhere under Ellerbe’s guidance and he was fired in 2001. From there, former Duke assistant Tommy Amaker was hired and that was another mistake seeing as Amaker was a former Duke assistant. Amaker was able to somewhat clean up the mess left from the probation so I will credit him for that, but far too often his teams underachieved and he failed to make the NCAA Tournament in 6 seasons with the Wolverines.

So why I am writing this? To re-hash a decade of how I was loyal as a Wolverine fan despite their absolute shittiness for that time? To remind myself that if Maurice Taylor doesn’t flip that SUV the Wolverines could have had a great last 10 years basketball-wise?

I’m writing this because it’s interesting to note how my favorite basketball team is undergoing a major resurrection much like my favorite hockey team, the Chicago Blackhawks, are. There is one reason for this turnaround and he goes by the name of John Beilein, the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.

Beilein was brought in from West Virginia in 2007 and has long had a reputation for being one of the best tacticians in the game. In his previous 3 coaching stops (Canisius, Richmond and West Virginia) he was able to get those teams to the NCAA Tournament, and nearly made the Final Four with an underdog West Virginia team in 2005.

The cupboard was left pretty bare in 2007-08 for Beilein as much of the previous year’s team had graduated or transferred. The Wolverines got off to a rocky start, as usually is the case under a new coach, but by the end of the year were playing much more sound basketball. It gave hope to this fan that in 2008-09, the Wolverines could be decent.

Turns out, I underestimated the 2008-09 Wolverines, because before you knew it, Michigan was upsetting UCLA and Duke in the non-conference schedule and positioned themselves for their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 11 years. The Wolverines were over-achieving (a hallmark of a Beilein coached team), not under-achieving like the teams under Amaker, which must be a Duke thing. Despite a few rocky patches along the way in conference, on March 15, 2009, 11 years of waiting for Wolverines fans ended as Michigan made the NCAA Tournament.

Not only did the Wolverines get in, they upset the favored Clemson Tigers in the first round, and then gave Oklahoma (led by NBA number 1 pick Blake Griffin) all they could handle in the second round.

Gone are the days when the Wolverines would play without heart or would beat themselves. This team now will get down and scrap with you, dive for lose balls, play good defence despite being under-sized and will not turn the ball over 20 times a game. We have one of the best tacticians in the game as our coach and even if unwarranted from a talent perspective at times, the players believe they can beat anyone on a given day, and that belief has spread to the fans.

There is genuine excitement about the Wolverines going into the upcoming season. Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims are 2 of the better players not only in the Big Ten, but in college basketball in general. A lot of analysts have the Wolverines in the top 20 preseason rankings at this point. Michigan adds a pretty good recruiting class to a team returning 80% of a team that made the NCAA Second Round. One of the knocks on Beilein was that he hasn’t been a great recruiter, but looking at his previous schools, none of those had the “name” of Michigan behind his recruiting efforts. This is further proven by the solid start Michigan has gotten off to with 2010 recruiting.

Throughout the college basketball season, I will touch upon everything and anything going on in the world of college basketball, but you’ll probably see more than few entries on the Wolverines. As I said, it’s been a long nuclear winter for Wolverines fans, and we’re excited to be back again. Maybe not back to the point where the team was winning national championships and making Final Fours, but without question, Michigan basketball is relevant once again.