Time to start hanging more jerseys in the Crisler rafters
There are 5 jerseys hanging in Crisler. Only one is retired, the other four honored with a banner.
Cazzie Russell’s #33 was retired on December 11, 1993 and that was the only number hanging until the mid-2000s when Michigan decided to honor a legend each year.
Rudy T’s #45 was honored in 2003, Phil Hubbard’s #35 in 2004, #41 Glen Rice in 2005 and #22 Bill Buntin was the most recent number to go up into the rafters in 2006.
Stopped for whatever reason after the 2005-06 season and nothing has changed since even though there are SO MANY worthy of having a banner.
#3 Trey Burke should be retired. You win national player of the year, it should be retired . Would like to also see #25 Gary Grant honored with a banner as well ALL of the Fab Five with their numbers all next to each other.
For all the guys we have in the NBA, we need to bring them back and celebrate them. With the 10 year anniversary of the 2013 Final Four team coming in the next few years, there’s opportunities to get this stuff done.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:36 AM ^
I agree completely on Burke, I think detractors would say he only had one really special season then left... I agree though, player of the year needs to be celebrated.
the other guy that should get a long look is Moe Wagner in my opinion. Again, stat-wise, I’m sure a lot of guys stack up, but he led the team to back-to-back B1G tourney titles and a national championship game appearance.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:49 AM ^
I would reply that in today’s basketball you’re never going to have elite players who stay for multiple years. If they’re elite then inherently they’re going to leave early. Burke being NPOY and leading that team to the championship game and possibly more if not for the block call is enough to honor his jersey.
Wagner doesn’t have that same elite type play but man I loved watching him play. Retiring his jersey is more debatable but arguments can be made both ways.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:27 PM ^
Inject it directly into my veins.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:39 PM ^
1.1 M views and counting.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:24 PM ^
I will forever love that move, but he traveled. That is today's game, though. More guys are getting away with three steps.
February 19th, 2020 at 3:38 PM ^
Looking closely, I think step 1 of 3 is debatable whether it counts, in which case he took 2 steps
February 19th, 2020 at 6:34 PM ^
Ok, tough guy.
February 19th, 2020 at 3:05 PM ^
Retiring Wagner's number is a joke. I loved having him on the team but we can't retire everyone who was a good player. If the bar is a Wanger-like career, we will literally have no available numbers in a few years. If Juwan is going to recruit a couple five stars each class we might have to retire 10-15 jerseys per decade. I understand the argument for Burke and it wouldn't upset me but I also believe retiring a jersey is a bit of lifetime achievement award. You don't get retired until years/decades later.
February 19th, 2020 at 5:08 PM ^
Izzo would strongly disagree.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:32 PM ^
We can't retire Moe's jersey! That's Josh Christopher's number.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:01 PM ^
Obligatory: "STEAL. BURKE. Michigan back on top"
February 19th, 2020 at 1:04 PM ^
Couldn't find the gif, but Trey Burke slapping the floor in front of Appling after this steal was purely orgasmic.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:18 PM ^
MSU slapped the floor up 7 right before Maryland went on a 14-0 run. It’s now a curse.
Slap the floor and we are gonna score.
Jalen Rose should have a jersey up. And what about Ricky Green?
February 19th, 2020 at 2:06 PM ^
I agree with Rose, but you then have to run the risk of retiring all of the fab 5 guys. I’m not even sure if this is allowed. Are they still in NCAA b-ball purgatory? They’d probably hit us with a violation.
I like the idea of retiring a jersey as a way to honor the most special players to come thru the program. I’m not one who likes retiring numbers though. I think having to wear a commemorative patch like the football team is even dumber, but at least they don’t retire numbers anymore.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:51 PM ^
The only member of the Fab 5 that factored into NCAA violations and sanctions was Chris- period. The other players were Bullock, Traylor and ??? It does bug me that the rest of the Fab 5 get lumped into that by non-Michigan fans and some Mich fans.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:55 PM ^
Seriously, you would expect it from the Sparty slappies, but not M fans.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:04 PM ^
Double post. got too heated
February 19th, 2020 at 1:05 PM ^
Obligatory: OT
February 19th, 2020 at 1:59 PM ^
I don't know what was crazier, this or Pool's against Houston. Great times to be a Wolverine.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:10 PM ^
Burke. Kansas was supposed to eat out lunch with all their talent and Withey in the middle. And if I recall we were down quite a bit with only a few mins left. Not only was the shot improbable, but the overall comeback was as well -- along with the win itself.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:24 PM ^
Kansas was up 8 with 1:20 remaining, and up 5 with 14 seconds left. Insane comeback.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:26 PM ^
I have one fun thing to add to this:
I used to get score alerts from Yahoo's Sports App. It would send "close game" push notifications for all of your favorite-d teams. So even though I was watching the game, Yahoo tells me that it's a close game even though Michigan is down by 15.
The machines knew man, the machines knew.
Also, I really enjoy Joe Posnanski's moment by moment breakdown of the Kansas collapse in this piece.
February 19th, 2020 at 4:25 PM ^
Starting with the GRob steal, I think we scored something like 2.4 PPP for the rest of the game, and only two empty possessions in overtime (the Stauskas missed 3 and the last drive when we were up 2).
My favorite unsung play from that comeback is an offensive rebound by Jordan Morgan where he has to scramble on the ground to get it to GRob who puts in a tough reverse layup. Everyone remembers his plays against Syracuse, but none of it happens without Morgan outworking Withey.
February 19th, 2020 at 3:55 PM ^
Moe.... aaah, No. Good career but nothing to immortalize.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:44 AM ^
I had to read the OP twice to make sure it didn't suggest that Austin Davis's jersey should be hung.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:47 AM ^
Well that’s a given, so I understand why WD didn’t include him in there. But we only get to hang it if it says big country on it (although being compared to Bryant Reeves seems like an insult, so we should probably ask him about that nickname)
February 19th, 2020 at 11:45 AM ^
A few of the Fab Five might be considered... (JH)
Not sure how it would go over but hanging Webber’s number (maybe not retiring it) would be a nice gesture.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:57 AM ^
To me, you can't hang one without the others, and I don't know if you can even do so individually. It'd be fantastic to have them all go up as a team. (Maybe along with the Final Four banners.)
Get everyone back together. Make it an event.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:53 PM ^
Meh.
I don't think we need to get the gang back together to hang two NCAA regional champion banners. If we had won a couple of BIG titles and a national title, yes, I think that would be worth discussing, but there is just not enough upside there to effectively re-litigate the Fab Five era with Howard trying to coach the team. Juwan should formally invite Chris to come to a game at Crisler and Chris should accept. The Fab Five era is not something we want to do a formal halftime celebration for. It is too nuanced and complex of an era of Michigan basketball, and it can only do Howard damage to fully explore it now that he is coaching the team.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:13 PM ^
If Juwan wins a few Big Ten titles here and gets to a few Final Fours - and especially if wins a National Championship - he should have his jersey retired. Definitely.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:49 PM ^
Idk if this is cheesy or not, but a collective Fab Five banner would be pretty cool
February 19th, 2020 at 3:47 PM ^
I was thinking the same thing, but it definitely is cheesy. However, maybe if they had a small section in the concourse of Crisler that was a Fab Five corner or something, some pics and interesting tidbits etc, that would suffice and be cool.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:03 PM ^
I'm still not ready to see Webber's number hang anywhere except perhaps Tom Izzo's office.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:50 AM ^
I will take the dissenting (perhaps?) opinion on this. Jerseys hanging from rafters should be limited to a very select elite few. Having 12 jerseys hanging is too many. I say limit it to (a) players that have been elected to the basketball hall of fame or those that were unquestionably the best player ever at their position for the school. Having too many jerseys hanging waters down the honor.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:55 AM ^
I see your point but I also feel like it could ENHANCE the honor from a certain point of view. Like you're a player receiving the honor and you think "Damn, they think I'm as worthy as Glen Rice!"
February 19th, 2020 at 1:33 PM ^
To me this is an odd take.
If a player accomplishes things equivalent to Glen Rice, then I think their number should be honored/retired. If not, it seems the opposite is true, what Glen did wasn't as special because people who did not accomplish as much receive the same honor.
I have a slightly different argument on the fab-five banner. The '89 team gets a banner which says National Championship on it, yet the numbers 55, 52, 35, 21, 25, 24 are not honored anywhere. Why would you honor 25, 24, 21, 5, 4 before the 89 team? And the Fab 5 would not have been who they were without 3, 14, 32, 42. Do those numbers go on the banner also?
If Michigan still wants to live by The Team, The Team, The Team and being Leaders and Best, you either honor the whole team or only the best. Anything else is awesome and great for the school, but does not require some form of honor.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:06 PM ^
This issue is there haven’t been any players as worthy as Glen Rice.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:56 AM ^
Agreed, and I would add (b) players with a University of Michigan degree. Even if they come back for the degree 30 years later like Cazzie Russell, that should be a requirement.
But yeah, Ray Jackson is a fine person and a fine basketball player but come on...Demetrius Calip deserves the honor just as much as Jackson does--probably more because he has a national championship ring--and nobody's advocating that they retire his number.
Also, Gary Grant? Why not Rickey Green instead?
February 19th, 2020 at 12:29 PM ^
In this day and age with this sport having a degree should be irrelevant.
In fact if we have obvious one and dones we should give them a presentation on senior day next year.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
Or at least with their senior class. Yes, I agree on everything. Except with number retirement. That's special and different than the usual honors given a great athlete. The retirement also extols their overall virtue (after all, we won't be retiring Rumeal Robinson's jersey, will we?)
Barry Larkin played baseball for Michigan in 1983, 1984, 1985. He left a year early. After retiring from professional baseball, he came back to Michigan and got his degree. He graduated during the ceremony on the morning of May 1, 2010. On the evening of May 1, 2010, they retired his number 16 jersey. I think Michigan's approach to that was exactly the right one.
Juwan Howard is a great candidate for retirement, I would have to say. A Michigan all-time great as a player, an impressive and admirable person, and a Michigan degree. Everything that you would want and expect from a retired jersey honoree. I understand if they wait until he retires as coach, that might be the best approach.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:54 PM ^
I don't begrudge any player for leaving after a year (or two or three) for the NBA, but that doesn't mean you need to honor them along with the players that are seniors. Back in the day, Kentucky actually did this when Ron Mercer was a sophomore. I thought it was incredibly lame then and think it would be incredibly lame now as well.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:46 PM ^
I completely disagree on them having to have a degree.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:53 PM ^
I guess I'm in the minority about this, although I think it's still University of Michigan policy that the honoree have a college degree.
For people who disagree with me: Michigan also requires a college degree to become a head coach of a varsity sport. Agree or disagree with this policy?
February 19th, 2020 at 1:09 PM ^
Not taking sides, but what does one (retiring a number and hanging a jersey) have to do with the other (college degree for a high-paying leadership position)?
This doesn't make any sense and I'm sure there are better ways you could have made your point.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:13 PM ^
That's a good answer. Maybe one has nothing to do with the other, but why have either requirement?
One might ask what a college degree has to do with the ability to coach a sport--I can't imagine that all MLB managers have college degrees, for example, and I also can't imagine that the ones who do are measurably better at their jobs than the ones who don't.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:11 PM ^
I'm in the minority with you Alton. An educational institution can reserve special recognition for academic achievement.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:08 PM ^
I agree. We're a university. Our players are going to school in addition to playing their sports. If they want the highest honor possible, they should fulfill both parts of the deal.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:58 AM ^
I agree with this. If team success is the primary criteria for jersey retirement, there is no one else more qualified than Rob Pelinka for jersey retirement. So IMHO, Burke and Webber are part of the select elite few who would be qualified to have their jersey retired. Juwan Howard's jersey should be retired if he's able to win a natty as the coach.