4-3-89 Monday. The damn[e]dest thing happened this evening. The Michigan Wolverines, who didn’t even win their conference crown this year (Indiana did), defeated the Seton Hall Pirates to win the NCAA basketball championship. Not only was Michigan seeded third in the Southeast regional, but its coach, Bill Frieder, abandoned the team just as the tournament started to take a position at Arizona State University. Bo Schembechler, the Michigan athletic director and head football coach, told Frieder that he could not coach the team during the tournament. “I want a Michigan man coaching my team”, he said, “not an Arizona State man.” The slap in the face is obvious. So one of Michigan’s assistant coaches, Steve Fisher, took over, and tonight, in what must be a dream come true for him, he and his players won college basketball’s greatest prize. The guy has a 6-0 coaching record! And to make things more dramatic, tonight’s game went into overtime. Michigan won, 80-79. In a way, I’m sad, because Seton Hall played its heart out. Both teams deserved to win. Overall, I predicted forty-three of the sixty-three winners, for a percentage of 68.2. I was correct in seven of ten upsets. Moneywise, I won five dollars from Paul Baker. Both of us had a team in the championship game—Paul Seton Hall and me Michigan. But I can assure you that Paul is pleased with the result. He’s a diehard Michigan fan. Another college basketball season is history; it’s been fun.
Note from KBJ: Here is a New York Times story about the Fab Five.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 