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Michigan Basketball: Beilein — ‘We Love The Fab Five’

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There’s still the perception that Michigan has tried to distance itself from the Fab Five era. Head coach John Beilein shot it down again Sunday.

Michigan's Fab Five took the campus by storm in the early 1990s.
Michigan's Fab Five took the campus by storm in the early 1990s. (U-M Media Relations)
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The 11th-year coach also hinted there could be a few more numbers hanging in the rafters in the near future.

"The university acknowledges that team. The NCAA has just put certain restrictions on that team for what we can do,” Beilein said. “The university … we love the Fab Five, and we continue to reach out to the Fab Five and that team.

“It wasn't just five guys on that team, now. That was a team of champions, as well.”

They wouldn’t have made it past Cincinnati in the Final Four had it not been for reserve James Voskuil, for example, who hit several big triples in the semifinal. Backup big man Eric Riley, too, came up big in a regional semifinal against Oklahoma State when Chris Webber got in foul trouble.

“But we have embraced every part,” Beilein said. “That period [of disassociation] is over with, and we are doing everything we can …

“We have a lot of things still going on in the future. We have more banners to raise. We have more jerseys to raise over time. Just stay tuned to all that. But the university, when you have the NCAA violations in there, that's a time that it takes some time to heal. But I'm looking forward to the times when we get everybody in that group together, and all of that isn't under our control, if you understand that.”

He was likely referring to a rift between Webber and Jalen Rose, which reached fever pitch in 2015 with Rose calling Webber “delusional.”

“If invitations are sent and they're not accepted, then that's okay. We just keep doing it,” Beilein said. “But one day, like The Supremes [sang] … one day, we'll be together. We'll get it all together at one time.

“In the meantime, we're not going to dwell on it. We're just going to keep moving and it's Michigan basketball, the past we love and the future we love. It's Michigan basketball; we're all a family.”

Beilein also said recently plans were in the works to welcome former coach Steve Fisher back to Ann Arbor, possibly in a reunion next year of the 1989 National Championship team.

“Steve Fisher and I have been friends long back when he was Michigan coach, and he has gone out of his way over and over again to when I'm on the road, I'm traveling, whatever ... the Nike trips, we have actually spent a lot of time together,” Beilein said. “Steve's a close friend, and I know that's in the plans."

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