The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/116680
Michigan's History With A Top-Four Seed Michigan entered the 2013 NCAA Tournament with the exact same seed — No. 4 — as it did one year ago. Obviously, the Wolverines were hoping for a different result than in the spring of 2012, when they bowed out in a secondround contest, 65-60, against Ohio University in Nashville, Tenn. The back-to-back No. 4 seeds represent the only times Michigan has drawn that number in the tournament. The Wolverines featured mixed results while playing with a seed in the top four spots. They've been a No. 3 seed five times — in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1994 and 1998. In '88, they advanced to the Sweet 16 by knocking off Boise State and Florida in the West Regional at Salt Lake City, before losing to No. 7 North Carolina in the regional semifinal at the Seattle Kingdome. One year later, of course, they shocked the world. With an interim head coach in Steve Fisher, they fought past Xavier and South Alabama in Atlanta; North Carolina and Virginia in Lexington, Ky.; and then Illinois and Seton Hall back at the Kingdome, sealing the national championship, 80-79, on Rumeal Robinson's final-seconds free throws. The Wolverines also enjoyed a No. 3 seed the following year, with considerably less satisfying results. They knocked off Illinois State in the West Regional at Long Beach, Calif., before getting run off the court against Loyola Marymount, 149-115, in a second-round contest. In 1994, four-fifths of the original Fab Five beat Pepperdine and Texas in Wichita, Kan., in the first two rounds of the Mideast Regional. They then took down Maryland in Dallas before bowing out in the regional final against Arkansas, 76-68. In 1998, U-M blasted Davidson in the first round of the South Regional at the Georgia Dome before getting knocked out by UCLA in a second-round contest, 85-82. Michigan has enjoyed a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament only one time, in the spring of 1986. That year, they failed to reach the Sweet 16, beating Akron in a Midwest Regional first-round game at Metrodome in Minneapolis before bowing out against Iowa State, 72-69. The Wolverines entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed twice in their history. In 1985, they beat Fairleigh Dickenson in the opening round of the Southeast Regional in Dayton, Ohio, before bowing out to eventual national champion Villanova in a second-round game, 59-55. Michigan's other top seed occurred in 1993, and the Wolverines almost made the most of it. The final year of an intact Fab Five saw them coming out of the opening rounds of the NCAA West Regional by steamrolling Coastal Carolina then staging a huge rally to beat UCLA in Tucson, Ariz. They battled past George Wash-