Let Ellerbe surprise you

REDDY

Reddy

or Not

Not more than a month ago, I was walking into the office of Brian Ellerbe. I sat down in the corner of his office, about to discuss the upcoming season with Michigan's newest head basketball coach.

I'll be honest, I was the biggest skeptic you could find when it came to discussing the basketball team. Graduation left this year's squad with Louis Bullock and Robbie Reid running the show, and a bunch of role players surrounding them. Not a pretty sight, I thought.

And I was confident sitting in Ellerbe's office that he wasn't going to convince me otherwise. But he did do something in the hour or so I spent in his office - something that completely took me by surprise.

He interested me. He made me look forward to the upcoming season - a season without Traylor, Baston and the rest. I actually couldn't wait to see guys like Josh Asselin, Brandon Smith and Pete Vignier take the floor.

Huh?

Sure, these guys were no more than role players a year ago, but something about Ellerbe's pitch made me believe that they could be much more.

So why should we believe him? The better question is: Why shouldn't we?

If you recall, this time last year, no one was high on a Michigan team without Maurice Taylor. And after the turmoil surrounding the NCAA investigation, Steve Fisher's firing and early losses to teams such as Western Michigan and Bradley, it seemed like there was no reason to get excited about Michigan basketball. I know I wasn't.

Slowly, things began to turn around. The Wolverines upset No. 1 Duke. They pulled off a stellar victory against Indiana and a Big Ten Tournament victory over Purdue.

Ellerbe and the Wolverines started surprising people.

All of a sudden, Michigan was the hottest team in the country heading into the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines took care of Davidson in the first round, and people were excited about Michigan basketball again. Sure, they ended up losing in the second round to UCLA - but it was fun, wasn't it?

It was fun finally watching a Michigan basketball team exceed your expectations, as opposed to lagging behind them. For all the Fab Five accolades and the 'next Fab Five' hype, we never saw the Wolverines actually reach their potential.

But this season, there's no danger of that. No one expects anything from this team - and maybe Ellerbe prefers it that way.

When you tell him where 'experts' predict Michigan to finish this season, Ellerbe just smiles knowingly. He smiles because he's seen it before - and he surprised people then, too.

- Pranay Reddy can be reached via e-mail at pkr@umich.edu

Tipoff '98 staff

Basketball writers

Josh Kleinbaum

Andy Latack

Pranay Reddy

Staff

Managing Sports Editor Jim Rose

Sports Editors Sharat Raju,

Mark Snyder

Photo Editors Warren Zinn, Margaret Myers

Cover Art David Meng

Special Sections Manager Marnie Kadish

Special Thanks B.J. Sohn

11-12-98