29 Years Ago and Today + Predictions
Mates,
29 years ago our beloved Wolverines played in the Championship game and won it. The game was in Seattle in the now-demolished (wise move) Kingdome. The Michigan games were fantastic. We beat a tremendously talented Illinios team 83-81, and of course faced Seton Hall in the final game. They were a well coached and tough team, led by an Austrailian named Andrew Gaze, a 3 point specialist (someone please google this to see if I am remembering this correctly). who was sure to figure into the outcome.
As to the final game itself, Michigan prevailed 80-79. For those of us who were alive, whether you were in Seatlle or not, Rumeal Robinson shot a 1-and-1 free throw with seconds left. We were down by a point....and he sank them both. Talk about ice in your veins.
Before the game we were in a bar across from the Kingdome and I started a poll of the patrons - questions like how many points will Glen Rice score, how many 3 pointers for SH's Andrew Gaze, and of course, who will win and by what score. The polls skewed heavily Michigan, even in Seattle.
So with a nod to the thread below, lets make some predictions.
1. Is Moe going to show up and dominate?
2. Are MAAR and Z going to rebound from Saturday's poor shooting?
3. How many 3's will Nova attempt, and how many go in?
3. Who wins, what score?
Go Blue!
XM
thanks to GRBlue for the edit
No need for Google - Andrew Gage is the correct name in question...
i was off by a letter, pretty close. interesting that he was 23 years old when playing against us in '89. i wonder who the oldest player on the court will be tonight.
Duncan Robinson - turns 24 later this month.
probably MAAR (23)
ETA: doh! forgot about Robinson
Good Gawd. Thanks for the correction! I hope my predictions for tonight are better than my remembrance of yesteryear...
- Yes
- Yes, I'm really looking forward to the X vs. Brunson match up
- 11-35
- Michigan wins 73-72
Even better numbering:
1. Is Moe going to show up and dominate?
Hell yes! I'm calling 21 pts, 11 boards, 3 assists
2. Are MAAR and Z going to rebound from Saturday's poor shooting?
MAAR will, and that will eliminate the need for Z to do more than focus on his D and finding openings in Nova's D.
3. How many 3's will Nova attempt, and how many go in?
They will attempt 29, and they will make 10.
3. Who wins, what score?
Michigan over Nova
74-72
But came through big time when it mattered. Let's hope Z will channel him tonight!
He missed 2 against Wisconsin earlier that year to lose the game. After that Fisher stayed with him after most practices just to focus on free throws. He said afterward that he wanted to be the one shooting them at the end.
Mo will have an average game, hitting for 16 pts and 6 boards. But he'll hold his own defensively, too, so a good game overall.
MAAR will shoot okay, Z will be all defense and a few knifing drive layups. Wagner and Robinson will shoot well, but not necessarily lights out - until late. Matthews will continue his MVP stylings.
Nova will throw up 20 3's, making 7-8. The 3-pt defense will frustrate them into launching contested 28-footers. They hit those, more power to them...
Michigan gets the lead late, with 2 minutes or so left, and holds on for the win because of game-closing FT points. 74-66
I had just gotten to my first duty station, Ft. Hood, TX.
Michigan won the NCAA Championship and a couple months later the Pistons swept the Lakers.
'89 was a great basketball year.
GO BLUE!
I had just gotten to my first duty station, too (FT Campbell), and was still living in the guest housing watching, and celebrating, that awesome win.
Still get chills watching those FT's go in.
Fun fact: I arrived on UM's campus as a student during fall 1989, the fall semester after Michigan's 1989 basketball championship.
Fun fact 2: My daughter arrives on UM's campus next fall.
Conclusion: UM wins the championship tonight.
unassailable logic.
(and congrats on daughter's matriculation)
I hesitated posting these facts since pundits and Vegas bettors were not privy to this information. But now it's public, so please adjust your expectations and wagers accordingly.
Unassailable logic predicts a Michigan victory tonight, hopefully on two Zavier Simpson FT's in the waning seconds.
IIRC. i want to say it was something less than 3 seconds.
his wki link here says '3 seconds' : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumeal_Robinson
had less than 3 seconds on the clock to get a play off after their timeout. But we were smart, and put Terry Mills w his long arms and jumping ability on their guy inbounding. Seton Hall got inbound pass downcourt, but they had two guys kind of fighting to grab the pass, and the long 3 pointer was off balance and not even close.
Can never remember being so happy w a missed shot in my life.
What a terrific run that was. Some days that felt like yesterday, others a century ago.
Let's get another title under our belts tonight - Go Blue!
my one good friend used to say: "Alcohol does kill brain cells - but only the weak ones". So you have that going for you - which is nice...
Can't watch replays of that game without thinking about one of Seton Hall's other standout players, Ramon Ramos, who was critically injured in an auto accident ten days after he began his NBA career in Portland in 1989. Never even played an NBA minute, and was left with permanent brain damage. Just awful.
that you mention it. so tough with a young life. bando, do you live out west somewhere?
Still remember that night being crammed in a room at West Quad with about 30 other guys, people stacked everywhere. And then elation and running into the streets down to South U to celebrate. Oh what a night...
Wow, I didn't realize that. I was in Rumsey House, right across the street. Glad you made the ending. Did you end up on South U afterwards?
was in SQuad that night, and I too wanted to murder said fire alarm puller. Sprinted through the Union over to my dorm, Barbour, and discovered I had left without my keys, and everyone was downstairs watching the game. So I crawled in the window well and pounded on the window until someone came and let us in.
Went the next night to Crisler for the welcome back rally, and got to a Chem exam like 20 minutes late. Scored 20 out of 100. Didn't care.
FWIW, the night of the Illinois game there was also a VanHalen concert at the Palace. Was there for the concert, but they played the game on the jumbotron, and VanHalen delayed their concert until the end of the game. Epic.
That was the first year I followed Michigan basketball. It all seemed so easy.
1. Is Moe going to show up and dominate?
show up, yes; have a solid but not dominating game
2. Are MAAR and Z going to rebound from Saturday's poor shooting?
yes, MAAR especially
3. How many 3's will Nova attempt, and how many go in?
they'll attempt about 22 and convert just under 30%
4. Who wins, what score?
I'm too superstitious to let myself answer this question
My Nephew was born at the exact moment Rumeal Robinson made the winning FT's.My Sister's last name started with an R,her first 2 sons initials were R.R. I BEGGED her to name my new Nephew Rumeal Robinson R. She refused but I called that kid Rumeal for 2 years but the nick name never caught on.Happy Birthday "Rumeal' R. on Tuesday which I hope will be a day of celebrating a National Championship.
I was 10 years old, and that year was a dream to be a basketball fan. Michigan basketball, the Pistons, you name it. Friends and I would congregate at basketball hoops in driveways with 8-foot hoops shooting mini-basketballs. We'd play one-on-one, two-on-two. We'd just shoot around. We'd imitate the PA announcer, calling ourselves "Joe... DUUUUUUUUUUUUUMAAARS" and so-on.
The whole tournament run was epic. Hanging on every game. The North Carolina game, a team that to a 10-year-old seemed an implacable barrier to success given the losses in the last two years, going through.
So when Michigan beat Illinois, my mom figured it would be good to let me stay up, even on a school night. But I had to "rest," at least an attempt at a nap, for an hour in the afternoon.
I got home from school. Totally jacked. The afternoon-delivery Ann Arbor News was there. The top space, always reserved to highlight content in the rest of the paper, was replaced with a blue banner, a picture of Glen Rice, and the words "GO BLUE" written in giant yellow letters.
I gave the nap a college try. One hour staring at a wall. Sleep wasn't happening
The game was soooo tense. Terrifying. I ran out of the room several times. When Rumeal was fouled. I ran out of the room. I came back. He made the first shot. I ran out of the room again. Came back. He made it.
Delight. Sports. Wonderful.
details and all.
according to the experts, and experts seem to be even more wrong than right now days. I was there in 89 and I'd be surprised if we had 15,000 fans in attendance, since the run was unexpected and Seattle was a haul back in the caveman days as my kids like to tell me.
Whomever plays better perimeter defense tonight will win. I think we can do it but need a Spike like shooting performance from MAAR or Robinson.
Hopefully there will be a massive party on South University in 12 hours. What a great and much needed, uplifting run this team has been on for our university.
edit: I nearly passed out twice in the Illinois game and only once in the final minutes of against Seton Hall. The first half of Loyola was almost as bad, but I'm remarkably calm now.
The phone rings and I pick it up. A good friend from work was calling to make sure I wasn't too stressed out and that I should immediately get a beer. The beer worked. Yes, that's right, beer vibrations from the Chicago area created a positive force in Seattle at just the right time.
I have an ample supply of beer for tonight.
may need to re-test this theory.
I won't be in a house with a sleeping 11 month old that required me to be quiet and sober. Tonight, I will be rapidly breaking out the beer when the team needs a lift.