Tell me about the Fab Five II
The Fab Five has been beaten to death and written about to death. The footage is all out there on youtube.
But looking for any other Michigan Basketball game beyond 1994 (The Fab 4 year) is a fruitless task. Until recently I found a video highlighting the Fab Five II. Some great footage of their 4 years, including the following year when Traylor and Bullock came in.
The Fab Five II was a recruiting class signed in 1994 that comprised of Travis Conlan, Willie Mitchell, Maurice Taylor, Maceo Baston and Jerod Ward.
They've much faded into obscurity. So much so that I didn't recognize the name of that class or the hype machine that was behind at first. Not much has been written about them. Apparently Baston had a Webber timeout moment in a tournament game in the mid-90s? There is no video of it anywhere.
I also noticed that 3 game win streak over Duke in the 90s. Something the Fab Five never did once despite having 3 guys who had long NBA careers.
Share your memories/stories of watching them. I'm starving for anything on MBB history. It's not like Football where there are 10 documentaries and 30 books out there. There is one big book but it was written in 1977.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:44 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:48 PM ^
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February 24th, 2018 at 1:39 AM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 8:13 AM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 9:12 AM ^
And was Bored. To. Death. A lesson in different strokes for different folks.
February 24th, 2018 at 9:18 AM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 10:39 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:55 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:58 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:58 PM ^
Michigan Daily archives have that everywhere. Fab Five II or second Fab Five.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:34 PM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 6:47 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:58 PM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 3:08 PM ^
Exactly. It was only a thing during recruiting.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:59 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:08 PM ^
If not that specific title, at least that general idea. I certainly rememberr that talk being common when they came in. My dad even took me to their opening practice after a football game, where they held a dunk contest that was predictably won by Maceo Baston.
February 24th, 2018 at 12:02 AM ^
The Ann Arbor News ran a headline referring to them as "Fab Five II" when Jerod Ward signed and rounded out the class.
February 24th, 2018 at 12:27 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:57 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:59 PM ^
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February 24th, 2018 at 12:43 AM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 12:51 AM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 7:50 AM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 7:52 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:04 PM ^
I remeber when Makhtar N'Diaye left Michigan to go to UNC. 13 year old me was pretty bummed.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:32 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 7:49 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:05 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:07 PM ^
1. Ward was the #1 recruit in the country. he had injuries and never lived up to the hype. i remember him having a solid senior year.
2. Taylor - was a great post player; a poor man's (no pun intended) chris webber. made it to the nba for a few years.
3. Basten - solid rebounder; excellent shooter inside of 10 feet. great bank shot.
4. Mitchell - didn't do much. i think he transferred after one season, iirc.
5. Conlan - shot a lot of airballs. fisher still started him a lot along side of dugen fife, iirc.
finally, in the 1997 big ten tourny ellerbe started basten (usually the 6th man) and went big along side of taylor and traylor. and guess what, UM won the first big ten tourny; later vacated.
that's all i've got, hopefully it's accurate...
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:11 PM ^
Conlon was a good glue guy. He was a taller spike version. But not on par with anyone in the original Fab 5.
Mitchell was former Mr Basketball, seemed to get lazy in college and or just couldnt cut it. Transferred to Alabama -Birmingham. R
Ward was the #1 overall player from Mississippi, truly one of the great what -ifs. Couldn't stay healthy with his knees until his senior season. Came out of nowhere to committ to Michigan. Let's just say, thinking about it now it's very suspicious.
Taylor was the prototypical PF with a NBA body a Juwan Howard post up game. Super active on the boards.
Baston was a Spider Salley clone who was pretty raw but could jump out of the gym. Pretty skinny. A typical dunk and defense 5.
On a side note, I will go to my grave that not only was Bullock dirty taking money, again one of those recruitng battles from DC that went our way. He was shaving points Specifically the 99 MSU game at home. With a spread of 6-7 in favor of MSU, he missed 2 free throws ( he was 90%) went 0-5 from 3, he was 40%, and during the last 4 minutes with us threatening the spread. He got a technical foul! His first tech of his career! How many tech's are given to players that arent taunting? On reflection may have been 2000.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:12 PM ^
Funny you bring that up, I've seen someone suggest on here before that there was point shaving going on in the UCLA game in the tournament in 1998.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:21 PM ^
Haven't heard that one.
Just by memory, it was one where Tobey Bailey went off. Just Purdue like couldn't miss.
Michigan had poor point guard play. It was always tough. I wonder if a box score would tell.
That MSU game. My friend at the game and me watching on TV came to the same conclusion separately.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:30 PM ^
UCLA went 9-17 from 3.
Bullock had an awful shooting game. But considering UCLA had 3 NBA guards. Bailey, Watson and Baron Davis!
Bullock using 27 shots to get 16 points to makes my head explode.
I want to say this was more of a typical Michigan loss. We tried to run with them. Negating our advantage in bigs. And their guards were better.
February 24th, 2018 at 12:19 AM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 12:38 AM ^
Michigan got up double-digits early and that is what it remained til the end.
That UCLA team had a lot of talent, but they also went 0-4 against Arizona & Stanford and had 35+ point losses to each of UNC and Duke. They were a very dangerous #6, but they also earned their #6 seed - their regular season resume didn't deserve better.
As I recall, I expected Michigan to win pretty easily against UCLA. I was sports betting a lot at that time of my life, think I put some $ on U-M. Didn't win that bet, of course. UCLA got up double-digits in the 1st half and Michigan never really could get the lead back. Bullock wasn't very good in that 1st half, something like 1-for-9 on triples (whole lot of 3s), which I suppose looks suspicious in retrospect.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:36 PM ^
Taylor was the prototypical PF with a NBA body a Juwan Howard post up game. Super active on the boards.
Gotta disagree here. Taylor always struck me as a guy with incredible potential but not the drive. I thought he never developed into the rebounder/defender he could have been. We saw that in the pros as well - he was a good scorer with the Clippers but never a very reliable rebounder despite having a chiseled 250-lb frame.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:45 PM ^
I'm not going to argue. He was my favorite. I may be remembering through rosy colored glasses.
I was 15-18 at the time. Teenage me could be very biased.
Thought he was a good defensive rebounder at least. May just be conflating with Baston
February 24th, 2018 at 2:40 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:37 PM ^
Been a reader of this blog since its inception in 2005 but never registered to reply to a board post - until now. To this day I thought I was the only one noticing Bullock shaving points in 1999, but mbrummer I have found a kindred spirit.
I had a pretty good view of it all as well - I was in the Maize Rage in 1999, its inception year and quite a rag-tag group given the dire straits of M basketball at the time (12-19 record in 98/99).
Let it be repeated for all to hear: Louis Bullock absolutely, 100% shaved points at Michigan. I appreciated Brian's line about Bullock some time ago: "Louis Bullock can die in a tire fire for all I care"
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:48 PM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 12:01 AM ^
Was UCLA see above. Apparently many people think that.
I don't remember it. But if you allow somone to take 27 shots, maybe the bench is in order.
February 24th, 2018 at 12:26 AM ^
UCLA. Knew I should've fact-checked. I remember in the '98-99 season going to an early non-conference game at Van Andel arena in GR, I believe against Western Michigan. Bullock was the star of that team but the rest of the team freaking sucked.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:50 PM ^
I remember when I had to throw away my original maize rage shirt. Sad day.
It's funny I remember that Brian quote too. And took it to mean the same thing. Since all 3 of us were at the school at the same time.
February 24th, 2018 at 12:17 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:38 PM ^
Been a reader of this blog since its inception in 2005 but never registered to reply to a board post - until now. To this day I thought I was the only one noticing Bullock shaving points in 1999, but mbrummer I have found a kindred spirit.
I had a pretty good view of it all as well - I was in the Maize Rage in 1999, its inception year and quite a rag-tag group given the dire straits of M basketball at the time (12-19 record in 98/99).
Let it be repeated for all to hear: Louis Bullock absolutely, 100% shaved points at Michigan. I appreciated Brian's line about Bullock some time ago: "Louis Bullock can die in a tire fire for all I care"
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:51 PM ^
I remember when I had to throw away my original maize rage shirt. Sad day.
It's funny I remember that Brian quote too. And took it to mean the same thing. Since all 3 of us were at the school at the same time.