Kornacki: Recalling Michigan's 1989 NCAA Basketball Championship
2/18/2019 10:32:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Features
As part of its reunion weekend, the Michigan men's basketball program will welcome back and honor the 1988-89 national championship team on the 30th anniversary of its memorable season. That team will be recognized during halftime of Sunday's (Feb. 24) game against Michigan State at Crisler Center.
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- It was a basketball season that began in Maui, ended in Seattle, and was so remarkable that it was honored at the White House.
The University of Michigan's national championship run in 1988-89 was quite a journey, and it was one I was fortunate enough to take as I covered the Wolverines for the Detroit Free Press. Sports editor Dave Robinson had hired me two months before that season began, and when Michigan beat Oklahoma in the Maui Classic championship game I thought nothing could be better than that.
However, the events of that tournament and most of the rest of the season have become a blur while three stories from that March and April turned out being unforgettable:
- The departure of head coach Bill Frieder as the Wolverines prepared for the NCAA tourney opener against Xavier,
- The glory of the closest two games in Final Four history,
- And watching President George H.W. Bush shoot free throws with championship game hero Rumeal Robinson in the Rose Garden.
As cool as it was snorkeling in the coral reefs off Lahaina and watching Michigan dominate a strong field in Maui, there was so much more down the road at the end of that season:
'A Michigan Man is Going to Coach Michigan'
I had arranged with Wolverine assistant coach Steve Fisher to visit Crisler Arena late that morning to watch videotape of Xavier with him and get his scouting report on the Musketeers.
But before I could leave our house in Ann Arbor, the phone in my basement office rang. It was a man saying he worked for Arizona State and that he had been told to call me with this message: "Gene Keady has turned down our offer, and we are going to hire Bill Frieder as our next coach."
That was an earth-shaking statement, but I quickly questioned its validity. The caller would not identify himself, and so I asked him about various people in the Sun Devil athletic department to see if he was legit. I had become familiar with many of his co-workers three years earlier when I visited Tempe to write a series of features for the Ann Arbor News and Booth Newspapers on the ASU football team Michigan would face in the Rose Bowl.
Bill Frieder (left) and Steve Fisher
This guy knew what everybody I mentioned did, and I began trusting him. He assured me that this was really happening. He wouldn't say why I was singled out, but I appreciated it. ASU athletic director Charles Harris had worked at Michigan, and I knew him. I always suspected he had something to do with it, but I couldn't get ahold of him to confirm the story.
Once we confirmed Frieder was on a flight scheduled to depart for Phoenix, the Free Press editors agreed with me that this was solid. I headed to Crisler, sat down with Fisher for our Xavier scouting report, and before leaving ran something by him:
"(Purdue coach) Gene Keady turned down Arizona State," I said.
Fisher's eyes got as big as saucers, and he jumped higher than I thought possible, saying "Noooooo!" He wouldn't comment on that news, but I understood.
The Free Press ran the story the next morning (there were no websites yet), and it was recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors contest for the nation's largest newspapers as one of the top breaking sports stories that year.
There was a press conference at the football field house, and Wolverine football coach and athletic director Bo Schembechler dubbed Fisher the "Michigan man" who would lead the team in the tournament.
I got the last seat on a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta that the Wolverines were on (no team charter flights back then), and during the flight I walked back down the long row from first class to find Fisher sitting on the right in the second seat from the aisle. The woman sitting on the aisle was kind enough to change seats with me, and we had a long talk over the constant hum of plane engines.
"The same people who were elbowing me out of the way a few days ago want to know my life's story now," said Fisher, shaking his head and smiling.
When we exited the plane, standing there to greet his team was Frieder. He would stay in touch with them the length of the tournament and became a story in his own right. The guy I sat next to on the plane became the Michigan coach for years to come.
A Final Four Like No Other
There have never been two tighter games in one Final Four. Michigan beat Illinois, 83-81, after losing to the Illini twice by double digits in the regular season. Then the Wolverines took down Seton Hall, 80-79 in overtime, to win it all. Two wins by three points supplied the smallest margin of victory any NCAA men's basketball champion has ever had.
Semifinal hero Sean Higgins gets ready to cut down the Kingdome net.
Sean Higgins, who was 11-for-22 on three-point shots in the last four games of the NCAA tourney, rebounded the miss on a long shot by Terry Mills by getting position down low on Nick Anderson. He quickly and smoothly rose along the baseline to pop in a short shot that swished with one second remaining to send Michigan to the championship game.
The Pirates were a challenging opponent in the finals, and Glen Rice scored 31 points to meet every challenge. But it was Rumeal Robinson who hit the two free throws with three seconds remaining in overtime for the victory.
"I had tears in my eyes," Higgins said that night. "I had to drop down so not to let anyone see me. The emotion just took over."
My editor instructed me to divide the entire roster of players and coaches to get a brief comment from each on what it meant to win the national championship. That, on a tight deadline in a game that went overtime, seemed highly unlikely. But co-writer Johnette Howard and I were able to accomplish that assignment.
We had an unbelievable amount of writing talent covering these games for the Free Press, including columnists Mitch Albom and Charlie Vincent, Corky Meinecke and Joe Lapointe. We had every angle covered and produced a sports section the next day that made us all proud.
I can still hear the team's cheer from the other side of the Kingdome locker room door: "One, two, three - mission accomplished!"
Rose Garden Free Throws
I was among a small group of Michigan reporters sitting with members of the White House press corps in their briefing room, awaiting clearance for the Rose Garden and the celebration of the championship team that would occur there with President Bush.
Once the doors were opened for us, we walked into a garden full of chirping birds and crabapple trees in full blossom. It was April 12, spring was here, and so were the Wolverines. It was a glorious, sunny afternoon.
Bush, who was about as new to the presidency as Fisher was to the head coaching position, shook hands with the Wolverines in the front of two lines as he made his way to the center of the group with notes in hand. He mentioned Mills, Loy Vaught and Mark Hughes for their frontcourt work. He lauded stars Rice and Robinson. Bush also noted Higgins' winning basket against Illinois in the national semifinal game.
"You did get Illinois," said Bush, alluding to the Schembechler comment that he wanted Michigan to play the Fighting Illini even though they had beaten the Wolverines twice in the regular season. That was so Bo and made me laugh.
Bush had invited Fisher and his wife, Angie, to a White House state dinner the previous week, and they even went for a late-night walk on the grounds, the Bushes and Fishers, with the President's dog, Millie. He took a liking to the new Michigan coach and said: "Steve, compared with Walter Mitty, he was a hum-drum existence. Your success, even Ripley would disbelieve. ... Nice guys can finish first."
President George H.W. Bush shakes hands with Rumeal Robinson at the White House.
Robinson held a basketball during the speech, and when the President was done talking, he looked at the portable backboard near one corner of the Rose Garden and said, "And now, Rumeal, I have a prop for you, a basketball. Go for it! Right here, we have a little demonstration. Fire one up!"
Bush realized he'd forgotten Fisher's presentation to him of a Michigan No. 1 jersey, and that took place before Robinson walked to a hard plastic lane set up in front of the basket. Robinson removed his suit coat, dribbled three times and swished the shot. Everyone roared.
Robinson got the ball back, looked at Bush, and said, "One more, right?" The President tried to wave off the challenge a couple times before conceding. Bush stepped to the free throw line, no dribble, and launched a left-handed set shot. It hit the back and front of the rim, every inch of the rim it seemed, and dropped in. Everyone roared again.
Robinson told reporters afterward in an interview on the northwest driveway: "I had to give it to somebody who's into pressure. President Bush did a great job of hitting the free throw!"
Fisher laughed about that episode when we spoke recently on the phone and said, "Rumeal told the President, 'I tied it. Now, you win it.' Bush hit that free throw and danced around like he'd just been reelected. It was the CNN sports play of the night."
Later, we all drove to the Capitol, where the team was honored once again. Michigan senator Carl Levin made my day by announcing during his speech that my game story was being entered into the Library of Congress to forever place it in history. I liked to think that it was his favorite game story from the championship game, but Levin was a Democrat and the Free Press generally endorsed Democrats, and well, you know how that goes.
Here was my lead for that story:
SEATTLE -- Rumeal Robinson had it all before him. Win, lose or another overtime -- it depended on his free throws with three seconds left. The first tied the game at 79, and a smiling Robinson thrust a fist high. The second also hit nothing but net, 80-79 -- and Michigan became college basketball's national champion Monday night at the Kingdome.
Robinson had been fouled by Seton Hall's Gerald Greene on a drive to the basket.
"I made up my mind to put it on my shoulders, and take the last shot," Robinson said. "I didn't want to pass off. I got fouled, and thank God I made those."
The Wolverines (30-7) beat the Pirates (31-7) of the Big East in the first overtime title game since 1963. It is the first NCAA Tournament title for Michigan, which had lost its two previous trips to the championship game. It was the Big Ten's second title in three years.
And the Wolverines did it for interim coach Steve Fisher.
"I feel like a ghost rider," Fisher said. "I'm going to retire unbeaten, untied. ... No, good things will happen."
Coming Up
Read more on the 1989 national champs later this week:
Wednesday (Feb. 20): Coach Steve Fisher will be profiled. In a lengthy conversation with MGoBlue.com, Fisher discusses when he felt confident that Bo Schembechler would name him the full-time head coach, the wild ride to the championship, life in San Diego and current Wolverine coach John Beilein's role in bringing him back for the 30th anniversary celebration. » Story
Friday (Feb. 22): Despite having four future first-round NBA draft picks in Terry Mills, Glen Rice, Rumeal Robinson and Loy Vaught, this team had several reasons why it was an unlikely NCAA champion. Coach Steve Fisher, guard Sean Higgins (a future second-round NBA selection), Mills and Rice reflect on what has changed over the past 30 years, and what hasn't. » Story
