Shivers of excitement rippled through Crisler Arena, like never before in Michigan basketball. Fans, media, and the college sports world couldn’t get enough.
Five freshmen — including three future NBA All-Stars — took the court together, soaring, slamming and shouting their way into the nation’s consciousness. Long-time Michigan watchers shook their heads in disbelief, thinking it was too good to be true.
For a handful, it wasn’t so good. Only they couldn’t tell their truth. Not then. Not much now. What’s the point?
The blinding glow of the Fab Five left most mesmerized. But a handful were left behind — feeling empty, almost forgotten, and carrying an ache they couldn’t reveal.
Eric Riley. Michael Talley. James Voskuil. Rob Pelinka. Sam Mitchell. These were among the Wolverines that might have been spotlighted in the 1991-92 season, had Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson not become the biggest quintet sensation since The Jackson 5.
As it played out, the former fivesome fought for scraps, while the Fabs fought their way to the national championship game.
“You don’t know, man,” one of the overlooked mused in private conversation, long ago. “You just don’t know. There was a lot of pain.”
The pain is understandable. It’s as old competition itself. Players want to play. Competitors want to compete. If somebody beats you — from another team, and often from your own — the natural response isn’t contentment.
The Team, The Team, The Team echoes so resoundingly through Michigan athletics not just because the man who spoke those words, Bo Schembechler, is so revered. It’s because achieving what he preached is so hard to accomplish.
One of the featured five, Howard, now runs the show at Crisler. He’s in the enviable — and unenviable — position of having secured enough incoming talent to potentially create more inner upheavals. Bringing in a top-five recruiting class lights a fire of excitement and anticipation.
It also can leave some wondering who gets burned.
Promising sophomore guard David DeJulius left the program this week. He’s already drawing interest from several programs, after revealing his intention to transfer.
DeJulius, a finalist for Michigan’s Mr. Basketball award as a prep performer, didn’t cite any unhappiness with Michigan in signaling his exit. But you don’t leave because you’re thrilled with your situation.
DeJulius seemed unsettled almost from the time the initial realities of college basketball set in. He told The Wolverine in an exclusive interview he felt like “a failure” in his first season as part of the program, during John Beilein’s last year as head coach.
That might have struck some as puzzling, given that DeJulius played in 25 games and was coming in behind established guards. That’s not how the thinking goes these days.
DeJulius admitted his expectations coming in were sky high, in part because those around him built up in his mind what he might do from the very start. When those hopes turned into 3.8 minutes of action per game, he felt devastated.
He took big strides this season as Michigan’s sixth man, averaging 7.2 points per game and showing some strong flashes. But he still felt he was playing out of position, and said so. Zavier Simpson controlled the ball and the Wolverines on the court. Period.
Simpson’s gone now, his career ended prematurely by a virus. DeJulius might have seen this as his golden opportunity — but didn’t.
Instead, he likely glanced at a rising senior guard, Eli Brooks, and wondered. Certainly, DeJulius stood fully aware of incoming guard Zeb Jackson, a 6-3 Rivals four-star performer out of Florida, and likely five-star commit Josh Christopher.
At 6-4, 200, with strong ball-handling skill and explosive scoring ability, Christopher wouldn’t have backed down against Rose, King and Jackson, much less anyone on Michigan’s present roster. The standout from Bellflower, Calif., could bring with him Fab Five-level excitement.
So could 7-1, 260-pound Hunter Dickinson out of Maryland, another Howard prize for 2020-21. Michigan won’t be starting five freshmen next fall, but the next wave surely isn’t going to sit quietly and hope for 3.8 minutes per game.
The veterans look on, and think hard. They don’t want to get Talleyed, even if they don’t have a clue about Michael Talley and his long-ago displacement.
Sophomore big man Colin Castleton just put his name in the transfer portal, joining the move out the door. Count him as another casualty of upgrading talent.
It’s certainly not Howard’s fault. He embraced the team he inherited, and earned high marks across the board for making the Wolverines on this year’s roster feel valued.
At the same time, he’s not going to search for lesser talent in deference to those on the roster. He’s looking for the best crew he can assemble.
Tom Brady took his openness a step forward in an interview with Howard Stern recently, noting his uneasiness at Michigan after U-M let head coach Gary Moeller go and Billy Harris — Brady’s recruiter — left.
“As it shook out in college, what I realized was that when you’re not ‘their guy,’ there’s a different dynamic,” Brady said.
He felt like Scott Dreisbach was “their guy,” and almost left. But Brady stayed, toughened and motivated and on his way to becoming the greatest quarterback the game has ever known.
The Forgotten Five stayed, too. Riley contributed regularly in the championship run, honing Howard along the way. Voskuil helped put the Wolverines into the national title game with his strong NCAA semifinal performance off the bench against Cincinnati.
“It’s not like we dragged him in off the street,” Michigan coach Steve Fisher said, after Voskuil came through with nine points in a 76-72 nail-biter. “He can play.”
The returning veterans on Howard’s roster figure they can play, too. The rookies don’t doubt for a second that they can. That means the new coach faces a big job ahead.
Find the right mix, maximize performance, minimize the pain — or at least manage it. Howard has been there before, in a way. Now he’s wearing the whistle.
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