Will any more jerseys be raised at Crisler?

Submitted by champswest on

     The jerseys of 5 Michigan legends, Cassie Russell #33, Rudy Tomjanovich #45, Phil Hubbard #35, Glen Rice #41 and Bill Buntin #22, hang from the rafters in Crisler Arena.  There is no question that all five are much deserving of that honor.  But, will there ever be a sixth, seventh or more?

     What is the criteria for reaching that great honor?  Team success?  Individual awards?  Cazzie led his teams to 3 straight Big Ten titles and to two final fours and was named National Player of the Year as a Senior.  Buntin starred along with Cazzie in those two final fours.  Glen Rice won a National Championship, set a scoring record in the process and was named “Most Outstanding Player”.  Although team accomplishments certainly help, that alone will not get your jersey raised.  Individual accomplishments, especially scoring and rebounding, seem to be the requirement.  And if you were good at both, all the better.  While other categories, such as assist, steals and blocks, are also important, unless you could also score or rebound, those alone will probably not get you selected.

Charts?  Yes!

     These stats are from: http://stats.ath.umich.edu/basketball/basketstart.php.  There are many more stats there as well.  I chose to look at career points scored, scoring average, total rebounds and average rebounds per game.  To help keep it in perspective, I also included career games started.  There may be some players that ranked high in career scoring average, but only played one season (Jamal Crawford).  Others, may rank high in career totals not because they were dominant, but because they started for four years (Zack Novak) due to weak teams.  I am not saying that we should penalize a player because  they started for four years on weak teams or because they only played for one or two years, but we need to know their amount of games played to better understand their position in the rankings.

      For the chart, I listed the players in order of rank in total points scored.  I listed only the current top 25 all time scorers.  The remaining columns show where those 25 players rank in the other categories.  Below the top 25 scorers, I listed 13 other players because they are ranked in the top 25 in at least one other category.  I omitted a few names because they are ranked low and in only one category (Eric Riley & Butch Wade) or because they only played one season.

     It should be noted, that the current honorees hold the #1 rank in all four categories.  Rice is #1 in points, Russell is #1 in scoring average and Tomjanovich is #1 in both total rebounds and rebound average.  Buntin is #2 in both rebounding stats and #4 in scoring average while Hubbard is #3 & #4 in the rebounding categories and stands at #20 in total points.

 

                   Michigan Career Leaders - Rank

   
 

Total

Scoring

Total

Reb.

Career

Player

Points

Avg.

Reb.

Avg

Starts

Glen Rice

1

9

6

19

16

Mike McGee

2

5

nr

nr

6

Louis Bullock*

3

15

nr

nr

1

Gary Grant

4

12

nr

nr

2

Cazzie Russell

5

1

17

8

nr

LaVell Blanchard

6

19

7

13

9

Rudy Tomjanovich

7

2

1

1

nr

Jalen Rose

8

10

nr

nr

16

Bill Buntin

9

4

2

2

nr

Manny Harris

10

14

nr

nr

20

Henry Wilmore

11

3

nr

8

nr

Daniel Horton

12

23

nr

nr

11

Dion Harris

13

nr

nr

nr

20

Antoine Joubert

14

nr

nr

nr

5

Roy Tarpley

15

nr

5

13

nr

DeShawn Sims

16

nr

12

nr

25

Jimmy King

17

nr

nr

nr

4

Juwan Howard

18

22

9

13

20

Bernard Robinson, Jr.

19

nr

19

nr

14

Phil Hubbard

20

18

4

3

nr

Loy Vaught

21

nr

3

13

nr

Rumeal Robinson

22

24

nr

nr

19

Terry Mills

23

nr

15

19

16

John Tidwell

24

7

nr

nr

nr

Maceo Baston

25

nr

8

nr

nr

Campy Russell

nr

6

nr

4

nr

Ricky Green

nr

8

nr

nr

nr

Chris Webber*

nr

11

14

4

nr

Dennis Stweart

nr

12

nr

8

nr

Ron Kramer

nr

15

nr

nr

nr

Trey Burke

nr

21

nr

nr

nr

Tim Hadaway, Jr.

nr

25

nr

nr

nr

Robert Traylor*

nr

nr

10

8

nr

Oliver Darden

nr

nr

11

6

nr

Courtney Sims

nr

nr

12

nr

7

Zack Novak

nr

nr

21

nr

3

Kenneth Brady

nr

nr

nr

6

nr

C.J. Kupec

nr

nr

21

8

nr

* Denotes players whose individual records have been

   vacated due to NCAA and U-M sanctions.

   

      Do any former players qualify for this great honor.  Certainly, Mike McGee and Gary Grant should be in the conversation for their scoring and Jalen Rose for his scoring and point guard leadership of the Fab Five era.  Two Championship Game appearances can’t hurt either.  LaVell Blanchard, Roy Tarpley and Juwan Howard should get a look, since they both scored and rebounded.  And what about this Henry Wilmore who started in 70 games from 1970-73 and ranks #3 in scoring average and #8 in rebound average?

       As for current and future Wolverines, it seems the key concern could be games (or seasons) played.  Today’s trend seems to be for the elite players to leave early for the NBA.  Can you hope to get your jersey raised if you only play one or two seasons?  So far, I believe only Phil Hubbard has chosen to forego a year of eligibility and still been honored.  It should be noted that, at one time, Freshmen were not eligible to play, so three years were the max.  I would like to think that some current players have the potential, but it may take three or fours years of playing to achieve the same level as previous stars.  Trey Burke has had a great career so far, but will two years be enough?  I could see Tim Hardaway, Jr. And Nik Stauskas ending up high on the scoring list, but it would probably take all four years to get there.  And what about Glen Robinson, III and Mitch McGary for both scoring and rebounding?  What could they do in three or four years?

      So, will we see any more jerseys go up?  If so, who is your pick for the next one?

 

Comments

ST3

December 26th, 2012 at 6:01 PM ^

http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept////baskmen/baskmaa/grantaa.htm

 

Gary Grant came to Michigan in 1984 and made an immediate impact on Wolverine basketball. Excelling defensively, he was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 1985 sparked Michigan to a 26-4 record and the Big Ten Championship. Nicknamed "The General," the 6-3 Grant later developed the offensive skills to make him the best two-way guard in college basketball. The first Big Ten player to score 1,000 points, pass for 600 assists and collect 200 steals in a career, Grant earned numerous accolades including: consensus All-America honors in 1988, AP and UPI Big Ten Player of the Year in 1988 and All-Big Ten honors in 1987 and 1988. Grant is Michigan's all-time leading assist man with 731 for his career and 234 for the 1987-88 season. He holds the career and season record for steals (300, 86 in 1986-87) and also ranks fourth in career scoring (2,222 pints), third in career field goals (896) and third in career three-point percentage (46.11%).

 

Bodogblog

December 26th, 2012 at 8:20 PM ^

Interesting point about the best players leaving early these days, which may in fact prevent most from having jerseys retired.

I watched M BBall back in the day, stopped for about 15 years after the Fab 5, and came back 3 years ago with the Darius Morris / Tim Hardaway freshman year team. I saw Gary Grant play, and though he was an outstanding player, I didn't think as I watched that this was someone who would have his jersey retired.  Rice and Webber were probably the two I saw that would be there.

If Burke stays on his track he's certainly that caliber of player, but you're right he likely won't accumulate the stats needed in 2 years.  Would be wonderful to have a Columbus kid with a retired jersey in Crisler.

MGoBender

December 26th, 2012 at 8:27 PM ^

The only one a legit argument can be made for, in my opinion, is Grant.

Jalen would be a distant, distant second.

The "leaving early" thing is interesting. I hope that Michigan never retires a number of a player that was here for only one year. Even two years would have to be really, really special.

For example, I see no way in which Trey leaves after this year and deserves a number retired (even if we win it all, he wins POTY, and goes #1 overall).

docwhoblocked

December 26th, 2012 at 10:41 PM ^

I agree with ST3 that Grant deserves the closest look.  He also raises the issue of All American and All Big status.  This would get me to think more about Rumeal, Juwan, Jalen, and Rickey Green (the fastest guard I have ever seen I think).  It seems like the Fab FIve guys will never make the grade though.  

We do have a couple of interesting Academic All Americans in Zach (the first in a long time).  One other name that deserves a look already has the Hustle Award named after him, Steve Grote.  Here is some added info on him for the youngsters on the blog.  

Steve Grote: A four year starter, Grote was the epitome of a hustle player. He is one of 5 Michigan players to earn All-Conference honors in each of his four seasons. He is also the first player in NCAA history to play in 4 NCAA Tournaments.

Grote ranks 10th on Michigan’s all-time list with 358 career assists.

Grote averaged 11.5 ppg in his career and averaged double digits in scoring all 4 years of his Michigan career (1973-77).

A 1976 Sports Illustrated article said, “Grote has started 78 of 86 games since his freshman year and is frequently called the most punishing runner at Michigan, which makes Bo Schembechler wonder why he is wearing short pants and sneakers.”

Grote holds the school record for most career fouls with 407 and for most career disqualifications with 25.

In 1977 Michigan established the Steve Grote Hustle Award, given each year to the player who displays the greatest effort on the court, in both practice and games.

Grote was a first-team Academic All-American 3 straight years.

k1400

December 27th, 2012 at 12:05 AM ^

I agree about Gary Grant.  Other than Grant, I'd say Jalen and that's about it right now.  I want to say C Web because I loved the guy, but.. yeah that... plus he was only here 2 years.  Burke could get there if he came back at least one more year.  Several of the freshmen could get there if they stayed long enough.

You make a good point about the effect of the best players leaving early.  If that means no more jerseys get retired, that's fine with me.  Those who stay will be champions.

Jivas

December 27th, 2012 at 12:36 AM ^

I was actually at Gary Grant's last home game in 1987, as a 12-year old visiting my 2 sisters at Michigan (yes, cool story bro, I know). He was really remarkable, and was a 4-year guy who won Big Ten championships...if anyone else deserves, IMO it's him.

After that, I believe #5 should be retired. It's really hard to pick Jalen over Juwon - really, to even distinguish one over the other - but I feel like if you retire #5 you accomplish not only retiring Jalen's number but also recognizing the Fab Five in its entirety.

StephenRKass

December 27th, 2012 at 1:13 AM ^

Yes, more jerseys will be raised.

Looking at your list, I believe Burke could be so honored, if the following happen in 2013:

  • Michigan wins undisputed Big 10 Title;
  • Michigan wins National Championship;
  • Burke has some incredible assist total;
  • Burke leads us to both the Big 10 and national titles.

While there may be a tradition of not raising the jersey of someone who doesn't stay four years, I think Burke could see it happen if he leads Michigan to the above.

trueblueintexas

December 27th, 2012 at 1:45 AM ^

If Grant has not had his number retired already, it's probably not going to happen as time pushes him further from people's memories. Not saying he is not worthy.
There really are not any I would say have been worthy. I know that may seem tough, but you really should deliver on two aspects. 1) were you widely considered one of the best players in the country for at least one year. 2) did you bring your team to a final four (like John Wallace of Syracuse carried his team).
Think of it this way, other than Burke this year, has there been anyone at Michigan in the past 20 years who stood out on a National level like: Kevin Durant, JJ Reddick, Adam Morrison, Anthony Davis, or for you old schoolers, Glen Robinson, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Jackson, Never Nervous Pervus, Calbert Cheany, Steve Alford, I could go on and on.
The issue with the Fab Five is two fold, one the stigma with C Webb cheating. Two, they have to share the focus. Would C Webb have been as good without Jalen, would Jalen have been as good without Howard and so on. Glen Robinson had to share the stage with Counzo Martin. Enough said.

profitgoblue

December 27th, 2012 at 12:23 PM ^

I may be the only one, but I think it'd be cool to somehow recognize the impact that the Fab Five had on the team and on college basketball in general.  Would it be totally lame to raise a "Fab 5" banner???

justingoblue

December 27th, 2012 at 9:38 PM ^

I think they should set aside an area with the Final Four banners, pictures of the good times, ect., but also include everything associated with the fallout. Putting the banners there and explaining why they can't be hung with the rest seems like it would be a pretty powerful message, and it's definitely one worth telling.

Edit: Same with the Big Ten Tournament banner and everyone through Traylor/Taylor, ect. Obviously things didn't end with Rose/Webber.

jmblue

December 27th, 2012 at 1:15 PM ^

"The General" (Grant) deserves it.  He was a great player on some excellent teams.  It's not listed above, but he also racked up a ton of assists.

McGee, I'm not sure.  He put up big numbers but played during a down spell (at the end of the Orr era and beginning of Frieder's) when we were mediocre.  I kind of see him in the same boat as LaVell Blanchard.  I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with those two being honored (Blanchard was a great all-around student-athlete who put up with a lot during his four years), but I don't know if it'll happen.

I wouldn't have a problem with Jalen or Juwan.  I believe Jalen did end up graduating (from Maryland).

 

Skunkeye

January 1st, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^

I think that 3 years is enough.  Phil Hubbard left early and made the list while Ricky Green who was as critial to the 1976 finals run did not since he was a JC transfer and only played two years at Michigan.  The problem is that most great players in this day and age will stay only 1 or 2 years at the most.  This means that Grant and Rose are really the only two candidates left with a likely shot at the honor.  I'll predict that we have seen the last such banner raised.