The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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OCTOBER 2020 THE WOLVERINE 29 81-78 in overtime, and led by 12 in the title game with North Carolina before fading in a 77-71 loss. Webber 's infamous timeout with seconds remaining when U-M had none left sealed their second-place fate in a year in which they — and many others — would argue they were the nation's best team. 3. 1964-65 NATIONAL RUNNER-UP, CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS Strack's second of three consecutive Big Ten championship teams was a scoring machine, leading the confer- ence in both output (92.9 points per game) and margin of victory (12.2 points a contest). The great Cazzie Russell, a consen- sus All-American, led U-M's scorers with 25.7 points per game, followed by Bill Buntin's 20.1. This edition of the Wolverines lost only one Big Ten game on the way to the title and won three NCAA Tourna- ment contests, thrashing future U.S. Senator Bill Bradley's Princeton team in the semifinal, before falling to UCLA in the championship tilt, 91-80. The team spent the entire 15-week season ranked in the AP top 10, start- ing and ending the campaign ranked No. 1, and holding that position in 10 of the 15 weeks of the poll. The team also finished the season ranked No. 1 in the final UPI Coaches' Poll. This team was also the first Michi- gan squad to defeat the top-ranked team in the country when it beat Wich- ita State on Dec. 14, 87-85. It was the second of U-M's first two elite teams and really put the Wolverines on the map as a basketball power. 4. 1975-76 NATIONAL RUNNER-UP Johnny Orr's squad was loaded, fin- ishing 14-4 and second only to Indiana in Big Ten play. The Wolverines lost a controversial, one-point decision in Bloomington when a Hoosiers' tip-in after the buzzer was allowed, one that would likely have been overturned by replay with today's technology. Led by point guard Rickey Green and forward Phil Hubbard, the Wol- verines won three tough games against Wichita State, Notre Dame and Mis- souri in a 32-team NCAA Tournament before beating previously unbeaten Rutgers in the Final Four, 86-70. They led at halftime before fading and fall- ing to Bobby Knight's Indiana team for a third time, 86-68. Green led the Wolverines in scoring with 19.9 points an outing, and every starter on that team averaged double- digit points. All were also eventually taken in the NBA Draft, and Hubbard's jersey would eventually be retired and hung in the Crisler Arena rafters. He and Green went on to long, productive NBA careers. 5. 2012-2013 NATIONAL RUNNER-UP Naismith Award-winning point guard Trey Burke's second and last team was a last-minute collapse in the home finale with Indiana from secur- ing a second straight Big Ten title. Missed free throws down the stretch and a Jordan Morgan tip at the buzzer that just rimmed out rel- egated them to a second-place tie in the conference and a No. 4 NCAA Tournament seed. Michigan had started the season a record 16-0 and spent time at No. 1 nationally. The Wolverines recovered from a disappointing showing in the Big Ten Tournament, with Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. carving up a VCU team that was predicted by many to spring a first-round upset. Freshman big man Mitch McGary's emergence as a force down low gave U-M another weapon. Burke's 30-foot triple against Kansas in the Sweet 16 forced overtime after U-M came back from being down 14 with less than seven minutes left, and the overtime win propelled the Wol- verines to the Final Four. A semifinal win over Syracuse set up a date with Louisville, in which fresh- man point guard Spike Albrecht stole the show in the first half with 17 points. The Cardinals came back, however, got the benefit of some calls and cap- tured the title — one that would later be vacated due to NCAA rules viola- tions — and U-M was a bridesmaid again. Burke, Hardaway, McGary, Nik Stauskas and frosh Caris LeVert would eventually become first-round draft picks — Burke and Stauskas were lot- tery picks — while Glenn Robinson III would go in the second round. 6. 1984-85 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS The first of two straight undisputed Big Ten championship teams, this group was loaded in the frontcourt and fueled by a pair of future first- round NBA Draft picks in center Roy Tarpley and freshman point guard Gary Grant. Frieder's Wolverines dropped only two conference games in a loaded Big Ten, finished the season No. 2 in both polls and earned a No. 1 seed in the 1985 NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines were barely chal- lenged in rolling through league foes, leading the conference in scoring mar- gin (8.8 points per game) and ripping off 17 straight wins in the latter half of the season. They captured the Big Ten title by four games over runner-up Illinois and seemed destined for a deep NCAA Tournament run behind Tarpley, the team MVP and an All-American. It wasn't meant to be, though. Frie- The 1984-85 Wolverines won the conference title by four games, posted 17 consecutive vic- tories at one point and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where they fell to even- tual national champion Villanova in the second round. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY