2B - April 8, 2013

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Two decades later, good night, and good luck

Twenty years and a day.
From the moment
Michigan's fabled Fab Five
stepped off the court, dejected,
in New Orleans on April 5, 1993,
almost exactlytwo decades have
passed before the Wolverines
finally fought their way back here.
Two decades when the bas-
ketball program looked back, its
unwavering focus resting only
on a pair of Final Four banners
lying dormant, abandoned in the
basement of
the Bentley
Historical
Library.
Two
decades when
pride still
rested with
those black
shoes, those STEPHEN J.-
black socks NESBITT
and those ban-
ished banners
- relics of a history shrouded in
controversy, now collecting dust.
Two decades when the pro-
gram's finest memories were
of the Fab Five: Chris Webber,
Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose,
Jimmy King and Ray Jackson.
They changed the game, you
know. They captivated a genera-
tion, shocked the world, and held
a nation in stunned disbelief when
they buckled and collapsed with
Webber's phantom fourth time-
out. They brought Ann Arbor to
life, then they watched it all end
- the spotlightfaded, the talent
pool faded and the powerhouse
basketball program that had
reached three national champion-
ship games in five years faded.
But this Michigan team has
stepped out of those shadows
and onto center stage. Suddenly,
the only reason anyone is looking
back isto compare legacies, to

remember.
And now, somehow, with one
more win over Louisville, we can
finally say good night to the Fab
Five as the face of Michigan bas-
ketball, and wish good luck to this
revived program.
Three hundred sixty-four days
ago, Trey Burke stayed.
He had a foot out the door, then
he reversed course. "Those who
stay will be champions," appar-
ently, and never has this well-
worn, clichdd statement been
truer than it is today.
"I felt like it was the best deci-
sion for me to stay my sophomore
year and compete for a national
championship next year," Burke
said that Monday, nearly a year
ago.
It was reminiscent of what
Webber, then a sophomore, told
a crowd of 2,500 at Crisler Arena
when Michigan arrived just 15
hours after its loss to North Caro-
lina in 1993, just 15 hours after the
phantom timeout.
"As I said last year, next year
we'll be back," Webber said.
"We'll be back."
He didn't stay, of course. He
left for the NBA and became
the No. 1 overall draft pick a few
months later. And, with him,
Michigan's championship hopes
seeped out the door. Elite Eight
once, Sweet 16 years later, but
never beyond over the next two
decades.
Until this year.
This team has a chance to do
what the Fab Five never could:
win a national title. It has faced
a fiercer gauntlet in this tourna-
ment than the Fab Five ever did
- in 1992, Michigan beat Nos.
11, 14,2,1, 4 and 1 seeds (average

One.
That's all that's left.
As I pen this column, a dusty
bound volume sits on either side
of me. One that holds every copy
of the Daily from the spring of
1992, the other every copy from
the spring of 1993.
Two decades later, the yel-
lowed pages still vividly replay
the heartbreak. Back-to-back
appearances in the national
championship game, and back-
to-back losses. But the pages also
- describe the elation that preceded
the losses, the elation after the
Final Four victories, the elation
that brought Ann Arbor to life.
You might know the feeling
now, because this program is cap-
tivating again, and Ann Arbor was
alive again Saturday night.
It was alive as a policeman
pointed a fingerto a group on
a crowded balcony, smiled and
shouted "Go Blue!"... and as stu-
dents climbed the oak trees lining
the Diag to get a better view of
the celebration ... and as someone
popped out of the sunroof of a red
sedan to clang away on a cow-
bell on South University in the
moments after Jordan Morgan's
ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily dunk sealed the Final Four vic-
the mountaintop. tory over Syracuse.
d. He repeats that It simply doesn't get any better.
again: culture. Today, there will be a ring, or
d that they're there will be tears.
aselves and for For the Fab Five, it ended in
:ride. But they're tears.
Michigan; they But we're not here to reminisce
'M' represents in the heartbreak, we're here to
er than themselves. usher in the new face of Michigan
ed, they've stayed basketball. This team has Michi-
ey've left Michi- gan's eyes on the future, not the
past. And that future is a beautiful
ill be no dispute as sight.
ner is raised to the But somewhere the Fab Five
afters. will always linger.
Rose, now an analyst with
*** ESPN, will be in the stands, sit-

ting with King and Jackson as
Michigan faces Louisville in the
title game Monday night. How-
ard, a veteran with the Miami
Heat, has a game Tuesday, but
Rose anticipates he will attend.
"The elephant in the room has
been Chris Webber," Rose said
on a Grantland podcast Sunday.
"While he loves us like brothers
and vice versa, there has been a
communication separation that
has basically taken place since we
all were teammates.
"I think the timeout had a lot to
do with it. Here's what I mean: I
think he wants to dissociate him-
self with that moment and that
school."
Twenty years and a day, Chris,
and you live in Atlanta. The Uni-
versity's self-imposed 10-year
dissociation against Webber and
three non-Fab Five players won't
be lifted until May 8, a month
from tonight, but that doesn't
need to keep them away.
Don't misunderstand: this
Michigan team deserves its own
legacy. The Fab Five is long gone,
but I'd love to see a homecoming
in Atlanta, but not for recognition.
It'd be appropriate for the Fab
Five to see a version of Michigan
they knew, Michigan as king of
the hill.
Perhaps, they can even see the
Wolverines finish what the Fab
Five never could. They deserve to
see that much, I think.
And soto Burke for staying, to
Beilein for teaching, to the Fab
Five for starting what they did so
many years ago, and to the rest of
the players and staff for giving us
all a reason to celebrate - thank
you. We won't forget this journey.
Good night, and good luck.
- Nesbitt can be reached
at stnesbit@umich.edu.

0

Sophomore guard Trey Burke has carried a youthful squad to

opponent seed: 5.5); in 1993, Nos.
16, 9,12, 7, 1, and 1 seeds (7.7); in
2013, Nos. 13, 5, 1,3, 4, 1(4.5).
A four seed shouldn't survive
that schedule, especially after
stumbling blindly into the tourna-
ment after losing six of its last 12
games. Like the Fab Five, many
wrote off these Wolverines long
before the tournament. No disci-
pline, no poise, no experience ...
no chance. But Michigan coach
John Beilein isn't a babysitter, he's
a coach.
Beilein taught them the cul-
ture of Michigan basketball the

day they arrive
word again and
They understan
playing for then
family and for p
also playing for
know the block
something bigg
They've stay
together, and th
gan different.
And there wi
this team's bane
Crisler Center r

0


MORGAN
From Page 1B
Mitch McGary. He was on the
Big Ten All-Defense Team and
still wasn't seeing the court.
But the next day, and the day
after that, and two weeks after
that, Morgan preached that he
was doing whatever he could
to help the team, whether that
meant getting playing time or not.
It was hard to completely buy
it. How could he not have been
pissed off, frustrated and angry?
Then Sunday, Morgan stayed in
his role as the defensive specialist
that doesn't fill the stat sheet. He
didn't try to force his game, didn't
try to impress the coaches or fans
or his teammates with anything
other than his own game.
He did what Jordan Morgan
does: he slid over, planted his feet
and got run over.
"That's how you get to Monday
night," said Michigan assistant
coach Bacari Alexander. "For Jor-
dan Morgan to have the adversity
that he experienced and then to
turn around and have the type of
huge defensive stops in a game on
a stage that's so big - it's redemp-
tion for that young man."
When Morgan was taken out of

the starting lineup for good, back
before the firstgame of the Tour-
nament, nobody acted like his
season was done, even though he
played more minutes in the first
game of the Big Ten season than
he did combined in the first four
games of the NCAA Tournament.
"Three weeks ago, we told
Jordan that if we win this whole
thing, you are going to have a
moment that's going to be the
reason we win," Bartelstein said.
"Sure enough, his moment came
tonight. He did somethingthat
will make him remembered for
the rest of his life by Michigan
fans. Everyone was happier for
him than for anyone else."
That's what makes this Michi-
gan team different. It's partially
the talent and it's partiallythe
coaching staff, but it's also a
togetherness and mindset that
allows for a forgotten big man to
make the most important play in
the most important game of the
Wolverines season.
That might not happen with
another program, but it happened
with Michigan, who now sits 40
minutes away from a national
championship.
- Cook can be reached
at evcook@umich.edu.

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ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily
Redshirt junior forwardiJordan Morgan sealed the win with this breakaway dunk.

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