The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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"There is a confidence level," he said. "Every kid knows that the team dynamic works. When you just concentrate on what's best for the team, it works." Making a Final Four can prove both overwhelming and motivating, noted U-M assistant coach Jeff Meyer. His first Final Four experience arrived in the spring of 1980, as a Purdue assistant coach. Working for head coach Lee Rose, Meyer helped guide the Boilermakers past Indiana and Duke, prior to a national semifinal loss to UCLA. Coincidentally, Louisville beat the Bruins in the title game that season. The Big Dance then bore little resemblance to the overwhelming production of today, Meyer assured. "It is so much different now, just because of the media coverage," he said. "It's beyond what your mind can get around at times. It's almost surreal. "The last several years, we've gone to these games, the Final Four, as a coach, and you've sat up in the second tier somewhere, and you can barely recognize whether the ball is going in or not. You can barely see numbers, recognize players and sets. "Then when you get down there and you look up, it's bigger than life. It is huge. You saw it — 70,000 people are watching a basketball game. It was a really, really neat experience." It's also one that whispers for an encore, no matter how hard it is to get there. Once you get a taste of it, the stage beckons everyone back. It seems like the whole world is watching. Assistant coach Bacari Alexander found that out, at least in terms of the Michigan basketball world. He couldn't get over the number of former Wolverines who weighed in with congratulations and well wishes. Anyone wanting to secure more and better reunions for the future, take heed — winning serves as the greatest magnet. "I got text messages from Antoine Joubert, Eric Turner, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard … so many guys who have come through here," Alexander said. "Zack Novak and Stu Douglass — you don't even have to go too far back. "They've really been appreciative in the fact of how we went about doing it. Sweat equity. It's a group of young kids who along the journey were probably unaware of the magnitude of their accomplishment while they were doing it. It's a group of coaches that have tried to represent our brand in a way that makes us easy to root for." People are rooting harder than ever. Kids now pound on the door, rather than peering through the peephole. Much has changed, in the NCAA Tournament and Michigan's prospects therein. If The Team remains so, Bo's spirit will retain a courtside seat. ❑ Editor John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @JB_Wolverine.