Players: Fisher is a scapegoat

Former players and present Michigan coaches showed feelings of disgust yesterday over the firing of Michigan basketball coach Steve Fisher.

The news reached far beyond the Ann Arbor limits. Former Wolverines and their families from all across the nation blew steam about the way things were handled and felt sorry for the players in the post-Fisher era.

The harshest reaction came from Fab-Five phenom and now Washington Wizards NBA star, Chris Webber.

''After all the things he's done for Michigan, it's rather spineless of the University,'' Webber said in an Associated Press report. ''I know a lot of basketball players who have been through the program the last 50 years that feel like they have no allegiance to the school anymore."

SARA STILLMAN/Daily Steve Fisher hugs Sabrina Lloyd, Maurice Taylor's aunt, after Michigan won the NIT in March.

Webber, who was the first of the talented recruiting class to bolt to the NBA in 1993 after Michigan lost to North Carolina in the NCAA championship game, 77-71, spoke highly of his ex-coach and said that it is going to hard to replace him.

''They used to call him Barney Fife, because he was so honest," Webber said. "And that's the way he is. I wouldn't want to be the next guy coming in. It's going to be hard for him to get some love.''

It looked as though Fisher received that love and support over the weekend.

The Detroit News reported that the scene inside Fisher's house Saturday night was an emotional one. According to the report, freshman guard Brandon Smith said that everybody inside Fisher's house was crying.

A spokesman for Fisher at his home Sunday night said the former Michigan coach refused to comment and that everything he had to say would be at an afternoon press conference today.

Current Michigan coaches of other sports not only were angered by Athletic Director Tom Goss's firing of Fisher, but, now with Fisher gone, were upset with the ways the last few Michigan basketball coaches have been treated.

"It seems all the high-profile basketball coaches here at Michigan walk in the door and are carried out feet first," Michigan wrestling coach Dale Bahr said. "It happened to Johnny Orr, Bill Frieder and now a wonderful family-man in Steve Fisher. They don't get the respect within the Athletic Department."

Frieder left uncerimoniously from Michigan in 1989 to become coach of Arizona State. Just before the 1989 NCAA tournament had begun, Frieder said he was going to take the position at Arizona State. Athletic Director Bo Schembechler chose Fisher to run his team, beginning immediately with the first round of the tournament. Fisher and the Wolverines went on to win the championship, beating Seton Hall, 80-79 - giving Fisher a perfect 6-0 career coaching start at Michigan. Rumors circulated, though, that Frieder and Schembechler didn't get along.

Bahr, who considers Fisher a friend, spoke of the times that Fisher would ask about the results of his team's wrestling meets.

The accusations against Fisher investigated by a Kansas City law firm tended to be what the coach didn't do to stop his players, rather than what he had done. But Bahr said that coaches can't be baby-sitters all the time.

"As much as we try to influence them, it's up to them to make the right decisions," Bahr said. "It's too bad that our careers depend on their actions.

"We can only guide them, and can't live with them 24 hours a day."

Los Angeles Clippers forward Loy Vaught, who played for Fisher's NCAA championship team, also conveyed that Fisher was being made the scapegoat.

Vaught, a Grand Rapids native, fully showed support for his ex-coach.

''My feeling is that he might be taking some heat for things that were kind of out of his control,'' Vaught said in an Associated Press report. "It's very unfortunate, because I know Steve Fisher and I can say that he doesn't cheat.''

The father of a former Fab-Fiver also spoke only high praise for Fisher.

Jimmy King, Sr., who is the father of Jimmy King - now on the Minnesota Timberwolves - was shocked at hearing the news of Fisher's firing.

He didn't know anything about it until he turned the TV on yesterday morning.

King, Sr., who spoke from his Texas home of meeting Martin early in his son's freshman year, thought that the real loss lies with the recruits whom Fisher sought.

"The guy you have looked up to and put in all your respect isn't there," King said."You come there and expect to stay four years under the coach that recruited you.

"I bet that some (recruits) may not want to come depending on who they are going to hire now."

10-13-97