Michigan's All Time Team
An ESPN article for each team in the Sweet 16 inspired this post. It's the type of article that really gets people talking and or complaining about who was on or off the list. Perfect for a slow day at work.
They listed Burke, Rose, Rice, Russell, and Webber for Michigan. That's a pretty dangerous combo and arguably the top 5 players, but not sure how well it would work together.
My team, would be:
- Trey Burke
- Glen Rice
- Cazzie Russell
- Juwan Howard
- Chris Webber
Bench (No Specific Order)
- Jalen Rose
- Rudy Tomjanovich
- Nik Stauskas
- Bill Buntin
- Campy Russell
- Mike McGee
- Nik Stauskas
- Gary Grant
- Bennie Oosterbaan
- Rumeal Robinson
- Hunter Dickinson
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:20 AM ^
Nik Stauskas was so good, that he's on the bench twice.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:22 AM ^
He'll play the first half as Nik, and then come in the second half as Sauce Castillo
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:31 AM ^
and nik stauskas goes to the locker room after fouling out in the first half.... WAIT, IS THAT SAUCE CASTILLO'S MUSIC?
Whoops, embarrassed I missed that. I also left out Rickey Green who was before my time but who definitely belongs on this list. There are a few others who should probably be on here too, much harder to slim this down than I thought it would be.
Ricky Green’s range was anywhere with in the building. A pure shooter
One is Just A Shooter, one is Not (TM).
Perhaps he meant Jamal Crawford who just retired as potentially the best 6th man in the NBA.
He's on the list first as a shooter. But did you know that he's not just a shooter? That Nik is also on this list.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:25 AM ^
Grant starts over Trey Burke. Better distributor and defender, imho. I don't need Burke's scoring with this lineup.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:37 AM ^
Agree, as I don't think The General gets the credit he deserves.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:37 AM ^
Agreed. The General is more underrated as each year passes.
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:13 AM ^
My attitude towards Grant deteriorated in April 1989 when Glen Rice took a little dig at Grant ("if I had to do it all over again, I'd go to Michigan") a couple of days after Rice's last game.
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:29 AM ^
I don't understand; how is this a dig?
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:38 AM ^
Needs context, for sure.
Totally agree that Grant should be on the starting team.
And, maybe I'm the only one here old enough to have seen him play at Michigan, but there's no way that Rudy T. should not be on the starting 5. Sorry, Juwan.
Finally, how the hell is Phil Hubbard not even on the list?? His jersey is in the rafters Fer God's Sake.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:42 AM ^
Far, far better defensive player as well.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:44 AM ^
Best defensive player at Michigan.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:50 AM ^
Still remember Gary Grant visiting A2 and randomly showing up at friend’s party and trying to hit on Brady’s girlfriend…and Brady (a sophomore at the time) and Grant had to be separated.
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:05 AM ^
Burke is the best player at UofM since the Fab 5, he was unstoppable. Stop it.
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:41 AM ^
I'm too young to remember Gary Grant, but I looked up big ten player stats over the course of the last decade (long story short, Illinois fans suggesting they would take Ayo on an all big ten team over every guard except Burke and D'angelo Russell) and Burke's stats hold up really well. Coupled with the NPOY, he would be pretty hard to keep off the floor, even if there are legit reasons to put Grant in.
March 22nd, 2022 at 12:22 PM ^
You should watch some clips of Gary Grant sometime.
Yeah, I guess I'll put it differently. Recency bias is very real, and tends to cloud people's judgements (there was an awful clickbait article that put both LeBron and AD on an "all lakers" team which is insane).
I sometimes forget how good Burke was while he was at Michigan, and his stats stand the test of time- not just because he played here in the past 10 years. He was legitimately phenomenal. That's all I was really trying to point out.
When it comes to all-time debates in sports I've found that recency bias is real, but <<insert word that's opposite of recency>> bias is just as real.
March 22nd, 2022 at 12:41 PM ^
Maybe you don't realize this but Gary Grant played before the fab 5. There was actually good basketball played before those guys got here.
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:37 AM ^
I think Grant's memory was tarnished a bit because outside of 1987 he had pretty poor showings in the tournament.
On the other hand, those of us old enough to remember when Grant led Michigan to a victory over Indiana in Bloomington in I think 1985, when we had lost there, like, 10 years in a row, will never forget it. That team -- perhaps that game -- signified that Michigan was back after 4-5-6 years in the desert, and it was all about Gary Grant. Yeah, those two second-round tournament losses (both, I think, as a 2 seed) were disappointing, but damn those teams were fun.
(Never more so than the nationally televised game 1987 against Indiana, here).
I love both of them, whoever can get the rock to Glen Rice 50 times a game I'm good with.
Grant definitely.
The biggest mistake on ESPN’s list is the coach. Steve Fischer was a terrible coach. He didn’t even coach. He recruited and then just let them play. That’s why the fab five was severely out-coached in both finals.
Orr, Frieder, Beilein, and Howard are all much better coaches.
Fisher went to three national title games in five years. It's hard to do that if you're not a good coach. He also went on to have an excellent run at SDSU.
Severely out-coached? 1992 Duke was one of the greatest teams in NCAA history and that game was actually close for about 35 minutes before we wore down and Duke took over.
Then UNC . . . that was a coinflip game (they were also a #1 seed). We won a squeaker over them in the regular season and lost one in the tourney. Just one of those things.
We might add that he won it all in '89, something no other Michigan coach has done. In that tourney he not only beat a UNC squad that had eliminated us the two previous seasons (under Frieder's watch), but also beat an Illinois team that had embarrassed us twice in the regular season (also under Frieder). I don't think that team would have cut down the nets with Frieder still there. Frieder's teams consistently disappointed in March.
1993 UNC also came two days after we won an epic overtime game over a great Kentucky team coached by Pitino. I always thought that game took more out of us than UNC’s semifinal against an overrated Kansas team.
Michigan, Kentucky, Kansas and UNC....that's a pretty solid Final Four!
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:20 PM ^
Incredibly, three of the four teams (Michigan, UNC, Kansas) played in a Hawaii tournament early in the season.
Fisher was a good coach, and he was fine in both national title games. But Beilein is the correct answer.
Frieder was the terrible coach. Look at the all the 80s players being discussed and Frieder did pretty much nothing with them.
And how do you explain the perennial tournament team Fisher turned SDSt into?
You have to look at Fischer’s coaching history. He was a high school coach and then long term assistant responsible for recruiting. I agree the Frieder wasn’t any better. Orr and Beilein were great coaches. The knock on Fischer is he wasn’t an x and os guy at all. He was only a recruiter. He was publicly known for showing up in ‘89 and just letting them play and the players won the game. That’s well known. He next had two bad years then recruited the greatest class in history and went to two finals. It was well known he wasn’t an x and o guy and you could see him getting out coached. Even the fab five said he just let them use their talent to win games. He won at san diego state for two reasons. At a small school like that, if you can recruit a couple of great players to play in a 2nd tier league you are going to win a lot of games. Over time, he also definitely had to learn more about strategy and tactics. Fischer is the one responsible for the time out. And by the way, he was on watch when Michigan got sanctioned and the program spent 10 years in Bolivia.
Until Beilein…The guy who had to win games without the best recruits. Beilein by far.
Am I missing something, or do we only have one real guard on that list anyway?
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:27 AM ^
I'd put Rose back in over Howard. Need two solid ball handlers.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:31 AM ^
These are probably two of my three favorite players in M history, but freshman year Rose was better than freshman year Juwan.
However, junior year Juwan may have been the 2nd best I have ever seen at Michigan (Glenn Rice's 1989 season was #1). He almost won that Arkansas game by himself - if he would have gotten a 3rd foul in the first half of that game, we would have lost by 30 points.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:34 AM ^
We don't talk about that Arkansas game.
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:39 AM ^
If Jalen had even been decent Jalen against Arkansas we win. He shot 5-19 with 1 assist He was off that entire tournament.
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:52 AM ^
He played ok against Texas but was largely invisible otherwise. Not dishing to Jimmy on the 2 on 1 in the late second against Arkansas and settling on that runner was on outrage.
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:45 AM ^
Jalen Rose was the primary reason the Fab Five made NCAA tournament runs.
Not to diminish what Webber and Howard did but Jalen’s work as the QB of the team was phenomenal.
He didn’t turn the ball over and he ran the offense. He scored when needed, rebounded, and played great D. As a 6’ 7” lefty PG he was a huge problem for teams.
Webber was a better overall player at his position but PG is the key position especially for a tournament run.
March 22nd, 2022 at 12:09 PM ^
Jalen was the QB on the court and off.
Jalen was the best player on the team their freshman year but he didn't improve much year to year and then had a mediocre to poor tournament in 1994.
Jalen was very underrated as a pro - he was one of the few that could (sort of) hold his own defensively against late career MJ.
This convo, top to bottom, is really making me think that you need two M All-Star teams, not one. Then you can go to work putting together guys who would compliment each other.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:29 AM ^
I feel like Mo Wagner should have a spot on the roster. He could be the 12th man but I feel like he should be in there.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:35 AM ^
Over who?
Not CWebb. Not Rice. Not Russell.
We’ve got a pretty good collection of historic players.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:42 AM ^
So to me it comes down to are we just lining up players and stats, or is this some sort of 2022 hypothetical tournament of all time players. If it's the latter, then we're talking about a game that is faster, less physical (than a 1960's game), and REQUIRES the 3 ball. Maybe Mo has a little bit of an argument there. But ultimately, I'm with you, I don't know how he cracks in the lineup. And for my money, and team below, if that's the scenario, gimme Franz over Mo. Better D. Better handle. Similar shot (maybe a bit streakier). And he's 7' now!
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:55 AM ^
Franz over Mo in college is not a credible argument.
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:04 AM ^
Why?