Disappointments dunk '97 season

Albert White: gone. Maurice Taylor: gone. Scott Perry: gone. NCAA tournament: gone. Shane Battier: never got here.

Robert Traylor: still here. Steve Fisher: still here. Controversy over NCAA violations: still here.

Michigan's basketball program underwent of its most volatile and dramatic season since Fisher took over for the ousted Bill Freider just days before the 1989 NCAA tournament and led the Wolverines to the national championship.

The 1996-97 season ended in similar fashion. A coach left -- assistant Scott Perry took the head coaching job at Eastern Kentucky after the season ended -- and the Wolverines flew back to Ann Arbor with a national championship -- this time the NIT title.

The NCAA's snub of Michigan rocked the program almost as much as NCAA rules infractions the University admitted to in early March. Since the report, more disturbing news has surfaced, much of it involving sophomore center Robert Traylor, whose spectacular season on the court was overshadowed by questions about a 1997 Chevrolet Suburban and his relationship with Detroit-area booster Ed Martin.

Traylor decided to skip his last two years of eligibility and head to the NBA because of the controversy, but changed his mind the morning he was supposed to announce he was leaving Michigan.

Questions about whether the University had lost control of the basketball program grew stronger when Fisher learned he had offered a scholarship to Dionte Harvey more than a month after he pleaded guilty to second-degree rape.

And all of this came after a season where junior forward Maurice Taylor left for the NBA and Fisher kicked sophomore swingman Albert White off the team for violating undisclosed team rules before the Wolverines even played a game.

Fisher fell out of fans favor after landing his second straight poor recruiting class. The Wolverines lost the best player in the state of Michigan when Detroit Country Day's Shane Battier chose Duke over Michigan and Syracuse. Michigan's Mr. Basketball, Charlie Bell, chose Michigan State.

It was an interesting year to say the least.

Michigan (9-9 Big Ten, 24-11 overall) began the season on a tear. Ranked as high as No. 4 in the nation, the Wolverines were undefeated after an improbable win over ACC champion Duke in Durham, N.C., and an overtime squeaker against eventual national champion Arizona.

The Dec. 8 victory over the then-No. 10 Blue Devils was the most amazing. Michigan was down by 12 with 10 minutes left. Taylor had fouled out. Duke was 103-1 against non-conference foes since 1983 on its home floor. Things looked bad.

But the Wolverines battled back behind a relentless defense that held the potent Devils without a field goal over the games' final 10 1/2 minutes. All Duke could muster was three free throws from Trajan Langdon.

The 300-pound Traylor, who had shattered a backboard in the Wolverines' first regular season game, gave Michigan its first and only lead of the game with on a dunk with six seconds left.

"We knew we could win all along," Traylor said after the game. "This team has one huge heart. We play together no matter what, when we were down we all picked each other up.

"This is a unique team."

Traylor's statement proved prophetic. The Wolverines stretched their record to 8-0 before a entering the Maui Invitational as the tournaments only team ranked in the top 20.

Michigan's season went downhill from there. The Wolverines dropped the tourney opener to unranked Memphis, squeaked by Washington State before falling to lowly Pittsburgh.

And the disaster in Florida, which Fisher blamed on young men playing in the sun more than on the court, got worse. Supposedly bitter and angry, Michigan let Ohio State walk out of Crisler Arena with a 73-71 win to start the Big Ten season.

The Wolverines rebounded a bit, going 6-2 over their next eight conference games. But Michigan lost six of its next seven games including a heartbreaker to Indiana when freshman A.J. Guyton helped erase a 20-point Michigan lead in the second half, torching the Wolverines for 25 points after halftime, including the game-winning 3-pointer.

Think that's bad? Michigan had No. 2 and undefeated Minnesota beat with 10 seconds left when Louis Bullock coughed up the ball that allowed Bobby Jackson to be on the free throw line when he didn't need to be. The Wolverines lost that one, 55-54. A win would have almost assuredly put Michigan in the NCAA tournament.

Instead, the Wolverines, staring straight into the face of the NIT, ruined their last shot of making the big dance, blowing a 17-point lead at No. 21 Illinois only to lose by 29.

Fisher closed the lockerroom after that game, just as he did after the debacle versus Minnesota. Junior point guard Travis Conlan was the only Wolverine that had much to say: "When the crowd started chanting, 'NIT,' it hurt."

09-03-97