1998 Michigan Basketball B1G Tournament Championship Game (Video)
I asked WolverineHistorian a couple of days ago to put up the 1998 B1G Tournament championship game where Tractor Traylor dominated purdue. Check it out, really brings back memories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6osTnDkhYVo&feature=channel_video_title
January 22nd, 2012 at 2:59 PM ^
the guy you mention was on the take and thus helped drestroy the program with his arrogant and unabashedly scumbaggish selfishness. are you ignorant of that? how can you take joy in that video?
January 22nd, 2012 at 3:11 PM ^
The only scumbag and ignorant one is you. Respect the deceased, ass.
The basketball program is back, so quit worrying about the past.
January 22nd, 2012 at 3:45 PM ^
I will worry about the fact that it took this program as long as it did to come back because of the shenanigans related to the Ed Martin scandal.
I loved this particular team, and had a blast watching them make that conference tourney run, but it's tainted, and will forever be tainted. Just because we're a top 25 team now doesn't erase that.
January 22nd, 2012 at 3:59 PM ^
Did banners get taken down? Yes. Are all of the wins from that time period tainted? Yes.
But to call a great player at Michigan and who is now not with us anymore, "arrogant" and a "scumbag" is absolutely uncalled for. You know who the scumbag is? Ed Martin.
They were kids at the time. Was it wrong? Yes. But they were kids. And if someone waved that kind of money in front of your face at that age, you probably would take it if you came from a poor or middle class family and needed money to survive.
Not to mention the fact Martin ran an illegal gambling ring? That is who you should direct your anger towards. The only thing that I am mad about still is I cannot recall an apology from any of the "Unfamous Four" (Webber, Taylor, Bullock, Traylor (RIP).
January 22nd, 2012 at 4:16 PM ^
I'm not disagreeing with your criticism of the other poster. Yeah, that's a pretty terrible attitude on his (presumably) part.
I direct my anger at every single person involved in that scandal. From Ed Martin down to the five players outlined in the NCAA report (including Voshon Lenard, who played at Minnesota). Yes, they were kids. But at the same time, that doesn't excuse the fact that they did something they were told was wrong. There was an atomosphere of rot and corruption that ran from the top down in that basketball program, based on relationships Ed Martin had with coaches, players, and their families alike.
So, sorry if I pretty much have zero sympathy for anybody involved in it. Doesn't matter if Robert Traylor is dead or alive and well, running marathons and curing cancer. The fact is it was wrong, and a lot of Michigan players, both teammates of those guys and those who came after, suffered because of their teammates' selfish decisions. And, you're right, the complete lack of remorse is inexcusable.
I now get off my soapbox.
January 22nd, 2012 at 4:57 PM ^
The fallout from the sanctions produced the dark ages of the program including the darkest day (which I think we know what game that was without mentioning it).
However, I believe that if Chris Webber apologizes once the sanctions are lifted in a little over a year from now, than he will be welcomed back to Michigan. At least that's what I took from Brandon's part in the Fab Five film.
I don't know if the banners will ever see the light of day ever again, but who knows. Everything depends on if Chris Webber and if the other two living players apologize. They were young and made a mistake.
January 22nd, 2012 at 5:50 PM ^
And I sincerely hope he isn't. 10 years with zero remorse (including, in fact, several ugly phone calls to Detroit sports radio in the late 90s trashing Michigan and its handling of Steve Fisher) isn't cancelled out by one paltry apology that would only be given so he and the rest of the Fab Five can further puff up their self-righteous "legacy" at center court of Crisler.
Chris Webber is all about Chris Webber. If it was even remotely believable he gives a crap about Michigan, which he has shown over the years is not the case, maybe an apology would be remotely believable, too. If he wants to come to Crisler in 2013, he can buy a ticket and take in what our program has done in spite of him.
January 22nd, 2012 at 6:02 PM ^
Let's not act like the scandal is the only reason why haven't been great over the last 15sh years. We still did enough to inflict damage on ourselves without the NCAA rule-breaking. We still hired Brian Ellerbe - who set us back even more with his questionable coaching and questionable recruiting and questionable everything-he-did - and Tommy Amaker who, bless his heart, just couldn't get us over the hump.
January 22nd, 2012 at 6:26 PM ^
The general reaction to the scandal was the opposite end of the extreme you saw with OSU and their cutthroat gamesmanship this past year. While that obviously disgusted me, I don't think the way we handled it was so hot either. The banners and "great day of shame" bullshit went too far for my liking, making many people question whether Michigan even cared about being competitive in the sport for a long period.
Pretty much played into every nasty stereotype some have about Michigan snobbery and elitisim.
January 22nd, 2012 at 6:31 PM ^
What, Michigan is supposed to continue to hang banners won largely on the play of ineligible players?
As for "day of shame," that's because it was. It's an integrity move to admit your program did the wrong thing. And it's an even bigger integrity move to make sure those banners never see the light of day again.
This really isn't that difficult to understand.
January 22nd, 2012 at 7:18 PM ^
Is there another place anywhere in the country that took their banners down? I know UNLV didn't. OSU recognizes the NC they won with Clarrett. USC was stripped of its BCS title but whether or not any decorative memory of the accomplishment can be found in the concourse of the Coliseum is something I'm not sure of. I understand wanting Michigan to hold itself to a higher standard, but I'm not so sure the "Michigan difference" means willfully rejecting something every player on a team save one worked their asses off to do and did it clean. (Speaking only of the '92 and '93 Final Fours here. I have far less of a problem with the NIT and BTT banners being down since by that time it obviously wasn't an isolated incident.)
Perhaps my problem with the "day of shame" speech is more on the media than with Mary Sue. They have replayed it incessantly and it seems to be held up as a watershed moment for what MVictors would define as the Corduroy Jacket w/Patch clan at Michigan. It's grated on my nerves, even if that's irrational.
January 22nd, 2012 at 6:22 PM ^
I am wondering how much NCAA bylaws would mean to me if I grew up poor in Detroit and rejected the temptations of drugs, gangs and hopelessness to work hard and maximize my potential. I'm wondering if violating an invention of old, stodgy white men more interested in appearance than integrity is something I would feel compelled to "apologize" for.
No, I don't think it would be.
January 22nd, 2012 at 6:27 PM ^
I wonder how much they meant for Lou Bullock, who didn't come from poverty.
We can play off the "poor kids taking money" angle, but at the end of the day, this was greed. A kid on a D-1 scholarship is getting tuition, paid housing, training table, etc. And all of these guys had a reasonable expectation of fairly lucrative pro contracts at the other end of the Michigan tunnel. I don't have a lot of sympathy for a kid who thinks that isn't enough.
January 22nd, 2012 at 7:09 PM ^
It was greed, but greed is rampant in all facets of society, especially in a place like the NCAA. I don't buy why some acts of greed should be met with official scorn and others shouldn't.
At the end of the day, there are real problems in the world. I have always viewed the NCAA as the kings of creating fake problems and disingenious outrage. So I can't find it within myself to demand a grand apology for doing something that hypocritical organization deems as wrong.
January 22nd, 2012 at 9:42 PM ^
I will worry about the fact that it took this program as long as it did to come back because of the shenanigans related to the Ed Martin scandal.
It's not a fact that we stunk in basketball for a decade because of the Ed Martin scandal. The two were only loosely connected. The scandal prodded us to fire Fisher, yes. But everything after that was our own fault. The scandal did not force us to hire Ellerbe, then Amaker, and let our facilities go to rot. Even the sanctions we received ended up being pretty mild (aside from the one-year postseason ban).
January 22nd, 2012 at 5:12 PM ^
I was actually visiting a friend in Chicago that weekend.
Contemplated trying to scalp tickets but then realized I was a poor recent graduate.
January 22nd, 2012 at 5:37 PM ^
I would love to see extended highlights of the 89 semifinal matchup against Illinois. One of the great Michigan basketball games in history.
Scandal aside, Tractor Traylor could ball. Great hands, amazingly quick feet for his size, post moves, unselfish with the ball. Man oh man.
January 22nd, 2012 at 6:01 PM ^
I remember when I watched this game it brought back a similar feeling in the pit of my stomach that those NCAA tournament games from the Fab Five era did. Prior to this, it had been four years since Michigan played a game that felt seriously meaningful in terms of protecting/advancing our status as an elite program. To win the first ever BTT was so cool, even if it did lead to the Brian Ellerbe era.
January 22nd, 2012 at 7:15 PM ^
January 22nd, 2012 at 7:25 PM ^
In fairness to Goss, getting rid of Ellerbe was tough after winning the conference tournament and getting a #3 seed in the NCAA tournament. Yes, all he did was rotate players on a talented team and we had to know there was a good chance he would suck once those guys left. But if you fire a guy after a season like that, you're setting the next one up for failure as everyone would have been whining "Why'd we get rid of Ellerbe?" when the new coach struggled.
The hiring of Amaker and subsequent six years of patience with him was just as damaging, but I can't criticize Martin too hard since he really did want Pitino. Never been so upset at Bo in my life for his public comments during that time.
January 22nd, 2012 at 9:48 PM ^
Ellerbe shouldn't have gotten the interim gig in the first place. That was the bigger blunder. The NCAA report came out in the summer of 1997, but Goss inexplicably waited until October to fire Fisher, which made it impossible to hire an outside coach. Then he bypassed Brian Dutcher and Scott Trost, neither of whom were ever mentioned as being part of the scandal, to promote Ellerbe, who had just been hired as the #3 assistant (and who had just gotten fired by Loyola of Maryland).
January 22nd, 2012 at 10:57 PM ^
Sure, the timing was suspect, but it's not hard to fathom the Ellerbe hire, if you remember that period of time and completely divorce yourself from the fact that you know what ended up happening. The guy had zero connections to Fisher, Ed Martin, etc. Trost and Dutcher were both Fisher guys, who had been around, and by virtue of being on a staff that had enabled Ed Martin to continue to be around that program, were not squeaky clean enough. Ellerbe was last in the door, an unknown entity, but free from attachment. And he'd been a head coach, unlike Trost and Dutcher.
Now, after the fact, he recruited a pack of questionable guys. And even though it was heavily reported he went to extremes to inform his players to stay away from Ed Martin (signs/pictures in the lockerroom and team areas, etc.), it didn't do enough. But that's a separate issue from the rationale for hiring him.
January 22nd, 2012 at 7:48 PM ^
I am pretty sure Bullock threw the game in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament agaisnt UCLA.
January 22nd, 2012 at 7:57 PM ^
What makes you say that?
January 22nd, 2012 at 10:36 PM ^