Comments on: 1989 NCAA Title Team to Gather for 20-year Reunion

By: Meal Worm: Robinson spills the beans

Meal Worm: Robinson spills the beans — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:56:10 +0000

[...] he cheated on her in the first five years. Dude. It’ll be interesting this weekend when they honor the team at Crisler. More interesting will be Rumeal spinning down his comments which I expect [...]

By: jamie mac

jamie mac — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:54:33 +0000

No mention of the 1988-89 Michigan Hoops season is complete without reminding folks the team lost in a December to a Div 3 school Alaska Anchorage in a post xmas holiday tournament.

Otherwise they had an awesome season from start–winning the Maui Inv–to finish.

By: jmblue

jmblue — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:32:31 +0000

Hold on, JB2. The program absolutely was NOT in shambles in the fall of 1997, when Ellerbe got the interim job. We were one of the most popular programs in the country, only a few years removed from the Fab Five years. The Ed Martin scandal, at the time, appeared to have been resolved (the case would later be reopened). But Goss made two terrible mistakes:

First, he inexplicably waited until October to fire Fisher, even though the NCAA report was released in August. By that time, no external hire was possible.

Second, he made the even more inexplicable decision to promote Ellerbe, a brand-new assistant who had just been fired by tiny Loyola of Maryland, over Brian Dutcher and Scott Trost – two longtime assistants who had paid their dues, were well-liked by the players, and who were never found guilty of anything by the NCAA. Ellerbe had no local ties whatsoever, and was a complete stranger to the players.

The rest is history. Ellerbe was no better at UM than he was at Loyola, and had no control over his program on or off the court. Our program collapsed under his watch. I don’t believe the same would’ve happened had we tabbed Dutcher or Trost (or better yet, fired Fisher in August, when it might have been possible to make an external hire).

By: KJay

KJay — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:43:17 +0000

Czupek and Taylor were absolutely dynamic for that squad.

By: Ky Fox

Ky Fox — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:09:39 +0000

Well we get to honor the last great team before s^%# hit the fan, our current boys get to rock some sweet throwbacks while we hopefully rock the bucks. Lets honor the good leave the bad and move on into the FUTURE of UM bball. Lets root JB on, in adding some more legit banners in the rafters!

By: noahtahl

noahtahl — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:03:38 +0000

talked at length with sean higgins about coach fisher, he lives in las vegas as I do, and he said the only thing that fisher was good at was breaking down film.

strange how both fisher and ellerbe came in as interim coaches, had great runs in ncaa tourney during the interim, were hired and then fired over the same scandal.

coincidentally I also spoke with ellerbe on a regular basis for about a month, he also lives in las vegas, and some of the secrets about fisher and college basketball would make you squirm.

By: UMDC

UMDC — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:49:00 +0000

I wish there was some real solid investigative accounting of what exactly went on back then. I’ve disliked Goss for a long time, but I really have no idea what the inside story is. There’s seems to have only been bits and pieces hear and there about everything that happened, seemingly not enough to draw any definitive conclusions from the outside looking in.

Personally, I’ve always liked Fisher and thought that he was just the fall guy. The easiest way for the University to publicly appear to be doing something was to fire the head coach.

By: JB2

JB2 — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:49:54 +0000

In defense of Goss, the program was in a complete shambles in early ’08. And Ellerbe was only the interim coach for the duration of the season. Then UM won the Big 10 tourney and had a decent showing in the NCAA (first-round victory followed by a close loss to a good UCLA team). That’s when Goss hired Ellerbe as the permanent coach – a terrible move in retrospect, but not indefensible at the time.

By: Musket Rebellion

Musket Rebellion — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:24:07 +0000

YES YES YES YES

That is all.

By: Go Blue

Go Blue — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:40:01 +0000

Gary, in your post you stated that the Martin scandal lead to the last 10 years of hell and I agree with that only partly. What many forget is that then AD Goss who mismanaged everything he touched, appointed B. Ellerbe head coach at a national power basketball program without even bothering to do a coaching search! Ellerbe was in no way qualified for such a prestigious job(UM was at that time) and had basically no connection to the school or program other than being hired as an assistant by Fisher. He had never coached a game at UM when appointed Head Coach by Goss. In my opinion, its hard to not think race played a hand in these events and if a competent, qualified coach had been hired UM would have at least remained competitive, even with all the negativity from the scandel. Just my opionion.