If you look up into the rafters at Crisler Center, you’ll see plenty of banners honoring Michigan men’s basketball teams of past year. Fifteen of them represent Big Ten titles. Another six display Final Four honors. Two more show the Wolverines’ NIT championships.
But directly above Michigan’s basket, one banner hangs in solitude. It flaunts just two words, illuminated in bold maize print amidst the otherwise-barren surroundings: “National Champions.”
And it has for 35 seasons.
“I will never forget it,” Terry Mills, a forward on the 1989 championship team, told The Michigan Daily. “… It doesn’t get old. People will come up and tell you where they were during the time when the game was on and all that type of stuff. I love hearing their stories. And it’s just something that they can never take away from you.”
Championships are timeless. But looking deeper into the Wolverines’ title run, the sources of motivation that fueled the campaign make it even more remarkable.
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Entering the final game of the regular season, No. 8 Michigan appeared steadfast. Just one hurdle stood between it and the NCAA Tournament — a daunting No. 4 Illinois. At least, the Wolverines thought so.
Michigan had the chance to ride a top-five victory into March Madness. But instead, the Wolverines left Crisler Center for the last time in the season with their seventh loss, 89-73, to the Fighting Illini. But the loss was only the first of several obstacles in their path.
Four days later, Michigan suffered a much more monumental setback.
News surfaced that after nine seasons at the helm, Bill Frieder would become Arizona State’s new coach for the successive season. In response, athletic director Bo Schembechler made it abundantly clear the Wolverines wouldn’t be led by someone whose allegiance was elsewhere. That same day, he anointed assistant coach Steve Fisher as Michigan’s interim head coach.
Within 24 hours, Michigan’s leadership was completely upended. Two days later, without any time to acclimate, No. 3-seeded Michigan took the court against No. 14-seeded Xavier in its first round matchup of the NCAA.
It would’ve been reasonable to abandon ship. After all, Fisher was stepping into uncharted territory. Michigan could’ve thrown in the towel and looked ahead to the next season, a blank canvas. But instead, the Wolverines used Fisher as their motivation.
“When (Fisher) took over, it became a little more special,” center Mark Hughes told The Daily. “Because you want to win for him. So you take out the ‘it’s us, us, us.’ It’s also Fish. We want to win for Fish as well.”
That drive made an immediate impact, as Michigan surged past the Musketeers and No. 11 South Alabama in 92-87 and 91-82 victories, respectively. As strong of a force as fortitude is, it will only get you so far. March Madness is filled with upsets, underdogs and cinderella stories. But to achieve more than a ‘One Shining Moment’ cameo, the motivation needs to pair with high-caliber talent.
And the Wolverines had that someone who could propel them forward, both in terms of leadership and skill, in senior forward and co-captain Glen Rice.
There’s a reason Rice is one of just five players in the program’s history with their jersey hanging from the rafters. Averaging 25.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in his senior season, Rice not only led his team in scoring, but he also leads the Wolverines for most points in a season (949) in program history.
“I think just by (Rice’s) performance, by the way he played,” Mills told The Michigan Daily of Rice’s leadership. “He would just kind of rally us and tell us ‘Hey, these guys are not better than us.’ … I think Glen was one of those guys that could stand up to you, get in your face and talk about your game, simply because you knew what he was gonna bring from game to game.”
Throughout his senior season it was clear-cut what he brought from game to game: consistent production. But when you’re averaging over 25 points per game, there’s only so much wiggle room to exceed expectations. Nonetheless, Rice found some space.
And some of that space was a result of his past experiences, serving as a motivational source. In each of the prior two seasons, Michigan squared up against North Carolina. And in each of those matchups, the Tar Heels prevailed.
Going into the Sweet 16, facing North Carolina for the third consecutive time, there was an overwhelming sense of déjà vu for most of the Wolverines players — specifically to the 1988 meeting. In both the 1988 and ‘89 meetings, Michigan and North Carolina matched up in the regional semifinals. In both meetings, the Wolverines and the Tar Heels came in as third-seeded and second-seeded teams, respectively. But in both meetings, the winning team differed.
“For us it was an opportunity to avenge a loss for the last three years,” Hughes said. “This was the team that knocked us out. … And to be able to finally get that win as well, to knock them off. I think that gave us a lot of confidence to be able to say, ‘Hey guys, we’ve arrived. We’re here, we can do this.’ ”
In Michigan’s 1989 matchup, Rice came out firing behind the arc. He knocked down 8-for-12 from three, single handidly out-shoouting North Carolina as a team from behind the arc. The Wolverines, led by Rice’s 34-point performance, completed something that stood in its path for three years. They took down the Tar Heels.
“We were fired up — but we had a bigger goal, we really did,” Hughes said about defeating North Carolina. “After we had a meeting with Fish, and it was: ‘We want to win a national championship. Final Four’s not good enough. Revenge and beating Carolina and Illinois, that wasn’t enough. We wanted to win a national championship.”
As John Wooden once put it: “winning breeds winning.” And for a team united in one goal and fueled by their new coach, Wooden’s words held true.
“Once you start winning games in a tournament, you start getting places you’ve never been,” Mills said. “I mean, you just know you’re on a magical run.”
Michigan took that literally with a trip to the Final Four on the line. The Wolverines blazed past No. 3-seeded Virginia as Rice and forward Sean Higgins combined for 63 points — nearly outscoring the Cavaliers’ entire team in the 102-65 blowout win.
A near 40-point victory in a regional final’s game isn’t typical, but the NCAA Tournament isn’t typical — there’s a reason it’s referred to as ‘March Madness,’ after all. Its manic, unpredictable nature is incomparable to anything else in sports. Nevertheless, fate seems to slither its way into the Big Dance. It did for Michigan in its third consecutive test against the Tar Heels. And it did for the Wolverines in the Final Four, facing No. 1-seeded Illinois once again.
Throughout the regular season, Michigan fell just seven times, and the Fighting Illini were responsible for two of those defeats. In its five other losses, Michigan was outscored by 17 points combined. In the two games against Illinois, it was outscored by 28 total.
It’s not just that the Illini handed the Wolverines two losses. It’s also the fact that Illinois tainted Michigan’s final memory at home for the season. Like with North Carolina, though, the fortuitous and unexplainable tournament path provided Michigan with a third opportunity to topple Illinois.
As they did with the Tar Heels, the Wolverines took that opportunity. And having Fisher at the helm played a key role in doing so. While he had no previous head coaching experience, he had a fresh perspective from the time he spent as Michigan’s assistant coach.
“Fish was able to take all the stuff we did all year, and he tweaked it just a little bit,” Hughes said. “He put his stamp on it. To give an example, before we played Illinois, he said ‘Hey guys, they killed us on the offensive glass, so we have to be the aggressor there, we have to beat them on the boards.’ And if you go back and look, that was something that we concentrated on and that helped us get that win.”
Fisher’s guidance did prove effective. In both of the Wolverines’ losses to the Illini, they out-rebounded Michigan. But in the Final Four matchup, that changed. The Wolverines collected 45 boards, compared to Illinois’ 39.
Contrary to the two teams’ regular-season meetings, this one remained neck-and-neck for the full 40 minutes. In a contest with 33 lead changes, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the game came down to the final seconds of play.
With four seconds on the clock and the game knotted up at 81, Mills released a 3-pointer. The shot clunked off the front of the rim before finding its way into Higgins’ hands, who immediately took a four-foot floater that sent Michigan to the National Championship game.
Five games down, the Wolverines had found their keys to success. They had a motivating driver in Fisher, the exceptional talent in Rice and they had, as Hughes put it, “a group of guys that sacrifice for the greater good of the team.”
Those same keys rang true in the championship game against Seton Hall, even with the stakes as steep as possible — overtime, down three, less than a minute remaining. But a turnaround mid-range jumper by Mills shrunk the deficit to a single point. And coming down the court with single digits on the game clock, Michigan remained focused. Drawing contact to get to the line with three seconds remaining, guard Rumeal Robinson drained both free throws to put the Wolverines on top.
And that’s where they stayed, claiming that elusive title:
‘National Champions.’
“This history is never gonna be taken away, and I love it,” Mills said. “Even 30-some years later, I loved being a part of it.”
Thirty-five seasons later, that history remains prominent, and their championship status remains in tact. But 35 seasons later, the 1989 banner still stands alone.