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An unwvanted leg9ac y
As much as some might like to forget about them, the legacy of the Fab Five isn't going away
IAN ROBINSON I DAILY SPORTS EDITOR
44WE WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAD A LEGACY FROM WHEN WE PLAYED.
THAT WAS ONE OF OUR GOALS, TALKING ABOUT IT AMONGST OURSELVES.
JIMMY KING
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"I would prefer he became a
nice Jewish doctor or lawyer
rather than an arms dealer."
- MICHAEL DIVEROLI, father of Efraim Diveroli,
an international arms deafer and owner of AEY, Inc.,
which has distributed armsand ammunition to the
Afghan National Army through a contract with the
U.S. government. Diveroli has been called to testify
before Congress after it was found that his products
were shoddy Chinese equipment from the 1960s.
"He was under some
stress because of the
Lenten season and
Easter."
- FRANK PREVITE, a sergeant at the
Lewiston Police Department in Ohio,
explaining the three-day disappearance of
New York-based pastoraCraig Rhodenizer,
who was found inside an Ohio strip club.
Dancers there said he had been drinking
and had received 3 or 4 private dances.
The Bentley Historical Library
on North Campus is the deposi-
tory for everything related to the
University's past. Simple registra-
tion and request forms will allow
access to the annals of Michigan
history, from Jonas Salk's research
to James Angell's papers.
In the basement, though, are
two classified, rolled-up pieces of
felt a normal visitor can't view.
The banners, which read "1992
NCAA Finalist" and "1993 NCAA
Finalist," were lowered from the
Crisler Arena rafters after a self-
imposed punishment in 2002 and
remain confidential. Visitors must
get permission from the Athletic
Department to see them, and that
permission has been granted just
once - for an Associated Press
reporter and accompanying pho-
tographer.
The banners were meant to cel-
ebrate Michigan athletic achieve-
ment. Fifteen years later, after
scandal tainted those records, the
University keeps their legacy com-
pletely out of sight.
That legacy, though, is inescap-
able.
The banners essentially repre-
sent the accomplishments of the
Fab Five, Michigan's freshman
class of 1991 that, in two seasons,
reached two NCAA Championship
games and forever changed college
basketball.
Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan
Howard, Jimmy King and Ray
Jackson comprised the legendary
class that was the first all-freshman
starting lineup to reach the Final
Four. The class also included a top
NBA Draft pick, three All-Ameri-
cans and four NBA Draft picks.
It might be the most talented
class ever, but that barely tells the
story.
The Fab Five transcended the
game. Three of their games still
rank among the five most-viewed
college basketball games of all
time.
"Never before in the history
after dunking on them, talking to
the television camera, exchang-
ing words with an opposing team
member about to shoot a free-
throw.
"It's a style a lot of people don't
agree witb," Webber said in an
interview with The Ann Arbor
News his freshman season. "The
criticism is something I'm going to
have to live with because I decided
to play this way."
The referees often disagreed
with that style. Frequently
charged as being too harsh on the
Fab Five, the officials took offense
to the antics. Veteran referee Ed
Hightower, who has worked 11
Final Fours, is rumored to have
called a technical foul on Rose
simply because he looked at him.
But Hightower has since changed
his view. Now he describes Rose
as "one of his favorite kids (to
ref)."
"They were a great group of kids
who loved,- have fun," Hightower
said. "You can just tell it on the
floor. ... They brought a new excite-
ment to the game of basketball. I'm
not sure we were all ready for it at
that time."
While the referees took offense
to the Fab Five, there was even a
segment within the Michigan fan
base, often referred to as the old
Blues, that didn't appreciate the
freshmen's pace of play and show-
manship.
"It was kind of a very creative
approach to the game that was
more akin to jazz - or to hip-hop
- than to the more structured clas-
sical music," said former University
President James Duderstadt. "It
was a completely different style of
how to play basketball. Much dif-
ferent than anythingthey had seen
before, and people don't like to be
challenged by change."
These fans were unwilling to
acceptchange or flamboyantbehav-
ior. The Fab Five were the opposite
of what the Old Blues wanted to see
in Michigan athletes.
TALKING
POINTS
Three things you can talk about this week:
1. The Fed's new Wall Street regulations
2. True Love Revolution
3. Mugabe's eroding power
And three things you can't:
1. The Olympics
2. Gmail Custom Time
3. Hillary in Bosnia
rBY T HE NUMBERS
Criminal counts Anibal Acevedo Vila, governor of Puerto Rico, is
charged with because of a campaign finance scandal
Years Acevedo could be incarcerated
Campaign debt, in dollars, that Vila and his associates tried to illic-
itly pay off in the scandal
Source:C NN
"If you're going to stick it out, I'm going to hit it."
- BOBBY ROGERS, a sheriff's deputy from Denver, on why he slapped his colleague on the butt
after he bent down over his desk to get his keys, according to documents obtained by the Rocky
Mountain News. Rogers has been suspended for 45 days after his colleague claimed he was "humili-
ated" by the event
YOUTUBE
VIDEO OF
THE WEEK
Dear loser, it's over
Deep inside most of us, there's
a host of suppressed memories of
adolescence: middle-school crushes,
embarrassing breakups and home-
coming drama.
As much as we pretend these
things never happened, they did,
and that's what makes this video so
funny. Called "You Make Me Touch
Your Hands For Stupid Reasons," it's
a dramatic reading of a letter from a
teenage girl to her ex-boyfriend, tell-
ing a story we all know too well.
It started when the writer's former
flame asked her out so they could go
to the dance. The rela nship went
awry, as so many middie school flir-
tations do, because the guy accused
her of cheating on him and called her
a "slut." So she breaks u, with him.
But her jilted boyfriend just won't
leave her alone, so she writes him a
letter to say she hates him.
The humor is in the reader's deliv-
ery, an amalgam of Vincent Price's
dramatic flair and Strom g Bad's blus-
ter. Thereadermockstheletter'spoor
grammar, punctuation and spelling,
putting extra emphasis on needlessly
capitalized words and speaking mis-
spelled words ("bastert," "jealouse")
phonetically.
With lines like "you make me
touch your hands for stupid reasons
you accidentally say you hugged me
I will never like you again," the line
could be bad free verse written in a
creative writingeclass.
Then again, it could be emo lyrics.
Either way, it's something the writer
would rather cram deep down into
her soul and forget forever.
- GABE NELSON
See this and other
YouTube videos ofthe week at
youtube.com/user/michigandaily
of the game had there been five
freshmen who were able to create
that much excitement," said Billy
Packer, who has covered the last 34
Final Fours for CBS Sports.
Butthe NCAA banners represent
much more than on-court achieve-
ments.
"I think for Michigan, overall,
they have been an immensely posi-
tive image," Athletic Director Bill
Martin said.
Packer and other sports com-
mentators, though, have a darker
view of the feats marked by those
banners.
"Had they won (a championship)
and what transpired thereafter,
they would have been remembered
as one of the black marks in NCAA
history," Packer said. "They and
Michigan are probably lucky they
didn't win that game."
The banners represent the
group's lasting impact on college
basketball and how, 15 years later,
it is still misunderstood.
A NEW ATTITUDE
Before they played a preseason
contest, the Fab Five already
brought a different attitude to the
game.
In practices, they would play
"freshman against y'all" scrim-
mages with their teammates. Even,
on a Michigan team that returned
four starters, they clearly were the
five most talented players in the
gym.
And if their teammates didn't
know it, the Fab Five would tell
them about it - with trash talk,
showboating and gamesmanship.
The rest of the world would soon
learn about those exploits.
Rose and Webber, who were
good friends in Detroit, were also
recruited by straight-laced, tra-
ditional college basketball pow-
ers such as Duke, Kentucky and
Indiana, where that kind of show-
manship would have been unim'-
inable.
But because the duo came -o
Michigan together, their familiar-
ity allowed their true personalities
to shine through. The in-your-face
persona the Fab Five's leader ald
point guard, Rose, played with it at
Detroit Southwestern High School
came to Ann Arbor with him.
And the other three quickly
embraced that style.
During media day of their fresa-
man season, Howard proclaimed,
"We are on a mission."
College athletes rarely make
those claims. For a freshman to do
it is almost unheard of.
And with this "shock the world"
mentality, they exploded onto the
college basketball scene.
Their antics became famous:
dancing on the scorer's table,
stomping on the opposing tean*3
center-court emblem after a road
win, staring down opponents
THEME PARTY SUGGESTION
Hallway hockey - The hockey team is headed to
the Frozen Four for the first time since 2003. In
order to prepare for the semifinals, you should find
a suitable hallway and some devout hockey fans
and play a combative game of knee-hockey. Divide
yourselves up into the four teams, but make sure
to stack Michigan with all the most aggressive
players. Forbid people from calling penalties and
encourage them to slash. Let the games begin.
Throwing this party? Let us know. TheStotement@umich.edu
STUDY OF THE WEEK
Lack of Internet access causes anxiety
A majority of Americans experience some form of anxiety when they
are deprived of Internet access or wireless for an extended period of
time, accordingto a study published by Solutions Research Group.
The group interviewed 4,994 Americans aged 12 and older, asking
several questions about internet usage and then rating the participants
by considering factors like the intensity of their engagement with the
media and their total time spent online.
The group concluded that 68 percent of people suffer from "Discon-
nect Anxiety," a term the researchers coined. Forty-one percent of those
affected are 12 to 24 years old, and 50 percent are 25 to 49 years old.
Four main reasons to explain this anxiety are safety, work, social and
navigation, according to the study. For those who are anxious because of
work, 63 percent of Blackberry users said they have used their phone in
the bathroom. Thirty-seven percent reported thattheyuse their laptops
"frequently" in the bedroom.
- BRIAN TENGEL