Saddi Washington beat Michigan in 1997
Found this the other day doing some research for the 'Guide.
All you have to read is that Louis Bullock hit only one field goal to know that wasn't going to end well.
Nice find, WD!
April 26th, 2018 at 10:59 AM ^
"first year coach Brian Ellerbe."
April 26th, 2018 at 11:40 AM ^
A prime example of why you shouldn't put too much stock in interim performance. A lot of teams rally behind the interim guy in the short term.
Ellerbe had been fired at Loyola of Maryland the year before. We decided that his one kind-of-good season at Michigan (won the BTT but lost in the round of 32 with a loaded roster) was more indicative of his ability than his three bad seasons at Loyola. Whoops.
April 26th, 2018 at 11:17 PM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 11:13 AM ^
Even in his post game quotes, you see the composure and leadership that has characterized his coaching at Michigan. Man, I do not miss the Ellerbe era.
April 26th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 10:09 AM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 10:47 AM ^
the fact that "ellerbe" was at the end of the hockey c-ya chant for a brief time tells you all you need to know about the ellerbe era.
I wish I was half as passionate about anything in life as WD is about his Michigan Guide.
Ellerbe would've gone from interim coach to former coach and we might have landed a competent D-1 head coach.
April 26th, 2018 at 10:07 AM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 11:42 AM ^
Maybe, maybe not. Ellerbe and Amaker were here a total of 10 years. A 1998 hire might have retired or moved on by the time Beilein was ready to come here. (In contrast to RichRod, Beilein didn't have an adversarial relationship with the WVU AD. He left simply because the opportunity to coach at Michigan was too good to pass up.)
Mike Jones!
April 26th, 2018 at 10:01 AM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^
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April 26th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 10:05 AM ^
in retrospect - it wasn't a terrible loss.
All of EMU, WMU, Detroit, MSU and U-M made the tourney that year - 4 of the 5 won a game (EMU lost to MSU, so someone had to lose) and 2 of the 5 made the Sweet 16.
I don't think any other year has even come close in terms of Michigan-based teams being successful.
April 26th, 2018 at 10:22 AM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^
Good stuff, must be a fun memory!
April 26th, 2018 at 10:24 AM ^
That was certainly an interesting season.
Beat Duke, Syracuse, Purdue, MSU.
Lost to Western, Eastern and Bradley.
April 26th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^
( me emailing Brian on my UM pine acct. back in the day).
April 26th, 2018 at 10:52 AM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 11:02 AM ^
April 26th, 2018 at 11:40 AM ^
That WMU team was fun to watch. I was a Sophomore at WMU and went to that game as well as all the home games. Saddi and Rashod were pretty dynamic. They carried that team with some help from Jason Kimbrough. The MAC was a pretty solid league that year.
As a side note, watching Earl Boykins for EMU that year was also pretty fun.
April 26th, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^
I was at Western the same time as Saddi and had the privilege of a lot of pickup basketball with the team. Saddi was a damn fine player, and really was a couple bad knees away from likely being a Big Ten player.
The 97-98 Broncos were a lot of fun. That's the year they beat Clemson in the dance. I was working at Waldo's at the time, but took the day off, and we nearly burned the place to the ground that day.
April 26th, 2018 at 11:59 AM ^
He hit corner three after corner three. Michigan football beat Wisconsin earlier in the day. Nobody really cared about the basketball game.
Western was very good that year. That was not a bad loss by any means. They knocked off a good Clemson team in the dance.
Like the above poster pointed out many people don't remember any of those November 1997 basketball games, because the football team was in full pursuit of a National Championship beating Penn St, Wisconsin, and Ohio St. during the month.
But as of this moment WD has had a post up for several hours without receiving a single downvote! Amazing! Maybe the old adage that some people never change is incorrect.
April 27th, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^
Dear Lord Id put all those awful Ellerbee, Amaker years behind me