Prove you are a Michigan Basketball fan

Submitted by ssuarez on

The joke replies in the "Michigan Basketball Resurgence" post made me think that this would be a good post. (and it is my first ever). 

List your favorite michigan basketball players from the years that the teams were not as easy to watch as they've been the last few years. 

My cool story bro - I shared freshman year orientation with Avery Queen and Josh Moore - one 7'3" and the other 5'8". They drove around in a red ford tempo. 

My favorite player? Probably Senior year Graham Brown. 

Zok

March 5th, 2014 at 10:16 PM ^

yikes, he drove me crazy. Couldn't understand how a guy that big could not rebound..

I will say Lavall Blanchard (was actually not bad) and of couse Dom "Bomb" Ingerson. Dom Bomb would launch it like he was Stauskas...but Stauskas he was not.

I was part of the original Maize rage back then, I believe it started the year before my freshman year 01'.

 

Marley Nowell

March 5th, 2014 at 10:19 PM ^

Me and my housemates called Graham Brown "the Ogar" because of his general demeanor.  I believe he was also voted the dirtiest player in the BIgTen that year.

wolf blitzer

March 5th, 2014 at 10:32 PM ^

First time caller. Love your show. 6'2" 230. Fav Mich Bball player? Well, I might've shared a dorm room freshman year with the OP; OP, if you had a computer monitor stand made like your presumed jump shot...out of cinder blocks, Press 1. 

/s

//but not really.

TrppWlbrnID

March 5th, 2014 at 10:38 PM ^

But from a very good team - Loy Vaught. Guard Thompson is up there and obvs glen rice.



I was all set to have Albert white be my favorite. Boy, did that not go well.

VictorValiant

March 5th, 2014 at 10:40 PM ^

Jerod Ward

 

for the #1 recruit in the nation for giving Michigan a shot

for not partaking in the Ed Martin scandal while his teammate did

for being a person of high character on and off the court

Bando Calrissian

March 5th, 2014 at 10:50 PM ^

I went to Brian Ellerbe's Michigan Basketball Camp twice (1999 and 2000, if memory serves). Pete Vignier taught me how to box out. The second year, I got food poisoning from a bad Caesar salad at West Quad. For the most part, I put up goofy jumpers and ran around really slowly.

I own a Josh Moore jersey. And an "Air Georgia #23" t-shirt I bought out of a black garbage bag in the Crisler parking lot for about five bucks on the way into a game.

I had student tickets for five years, stretching the final three Amaker seasons and the first two Beilein years. I sat in the third to last row of the gold seats for every game my freshman year because I wanted to prove a point and sit in my actual seat instead of sneaking down into the bleachers. For more than a few games, I was the only one there for a section in each direction. For the four years I was actually an undergraduate student, we went to the tournament zero times.

After all of that, my all-time favorite Dark Ages player is LaVell Blanchard, closely followed by Gavin Groninger. Dark horse benchwarmer love to Amadou Ba and Leland Anderson.

JHendo

March 5th, 2014 at 10:55 PM ^

When I was 8 years old, I was the ball boy for a bunch of games during the second season of the fab five. Juwan Howard was by far the nicest and went out of his way to interact with us...can't say I was a huge fan of Jalen though.

Zone Left

March 5th, 2014 at 11:06 PM ^

I watched all of the 2000-01 Duke game. I think it started with a 34-4 Duke run. That was opposite a Final Four MSU team.

I missed most Michigan basketball for the next decade while I bounced around the country for work. Some of those teams were bad enough that sending a TV signal outside the BIg 10 footprint violated several anti-smut statutes.

Evil Empire

March 6th, 2014 at 8:50 AM ^

Probably the worst in a long run of disappointing squads.  We lost to Penn State twice!  Only win in the final 10 games was a win over Iowa at home (we beat them in Iowa City too, they must have been lousy).

 

It was the 2004-05 team that broke my spirit.  I broke a kitchen chair during the 99-68 loss at Georgia Tech.  I hung on to that chair for several years before realizing there was no way I could fix it.  That team started 12-5 with some very close losses but lost 13 of its final 14 games, most by double digits.  At the time of Horton's suspension they were 12-7.  The rest of the year was Dion Harris and Dani Wohl running the point with walk-ons getting major minutes at the guard spots.

Wulverine

March 5th, 2014 at 11:07 PM ^

When I worked at Ulrichs I sold Jalen Rose his books for his freshemen classes. He came in with all the other guys from the fab 5. He was quite clueless about the process but Webber was setting him strainght.  cannot confirm nor deny whether he actually cracked any of the books open.

One of my favoriet Michigan moments of all times was Guard Thompson draining 3 pointers against David Robinson and Navy!!!

My favorite moment was dancing on the streets of South U after Rumeal drained the shots during my freshemen year of 88-89

 

freejs

March 5th, 2014 at 11:08 PM ^

LaVell Blanchard. I've always said there should be a plaque honoring him somewhere in the complex. He stayed in AA when he could have gone anywhere, and he soldiered on playing his heart out for four miserable years. He always gave max effort during some rough times. 

OSUgradUMfan

March 5th, 2014 at 11:09 PM ^

Graham Brown. 

He was always a hard worker, set lots of picks and did the dirty work.  I remember when he set a pick against a Wisconsin PG and he might have knocked him out?

 

Another favorite was Michael Griffin.  Didn't score many points, but he was a scary good defender for his size and picked up quite a few rebounds for Michigan in the late 80s.

 

Also, for good measure Amadou Ba

oldblue

March 5th, 2014 at 11:12 PM ^

I cannot believe that we have this many responses and noone has come up with the perfect answer to the question asked--Thad Garner. He was terrific on probably the worst team we have ever had. He was worth the price of admission on his own, and, almost every game, there would be a 2 or 3 minute period when he would totally dominate the game from the defensive side of the ball. He had a great heart and great energy. Those too young to have seen him missed a really good one.

ilah17

March 6th, 2014 at 8:43 AM ^

Me too. I'm always happy when kids we want from Ann Arbor pick UM. I think it might be hard for some of them to give up the dream of going "away" to school, even though UM is such a great school and many of them probably grew up UM fans.

BlueInWisconsin

March 5th, 2014 at 11:25 PM ^

My first Michigan basketball game comes with a cool story.  It was the late 70's and I was probably in first grade at the time (Lawton Elementay in Ann Arbor). My family was eating at Blimpy Burger when Bob Ufer walks in.  My parents goaded my younger brother into singing The Victors for him and Ufer gave us two basketball tickets.  I went with my dad and after the game we walked on the court and he held me up to touch the net.  Good times.

I have another celebrity Blimpy Burger sighting as well.  I was once walking in as Dr. Kavorkian was walking out.

On the down side I was at Michigan for the Fab Five and never went to a game.  I had football and hockey tickets instead.