The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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where are they now? Michigan never waned. "It was just an incredible run," Mills said of Michigan's surge last spring. "Us being able to put those games together and win the championship was an unbelievable run for us. With the Wolverines last year, I had a chance to follow them, starting at The Palace. I caught them out at the Final Four. Just being a fan from the other side of it and not a participant, it was unreal." The surreal sensation from 1989 really never diminished. A team that didn't win the Big Ten and suffered the momentarily staggering loss of its head coach came together for a run to remember. Longtime Michigan basketball fans know the story well. The talent-laden Wolverines of head coach Bill Freider won plenty of ballgames along the way, but finished 12-6 and in third place in the conference, including an embarrassing 89-73 loss to Illinois in the regular-season finale at Crisler Arena. "One of the things we said in the locker room was, 'We're going to see them in the tournament,' because we knew they were good enough to get there," Mills recalled. "'Somehow, somewhere, we'll see them again.'" So much happened prior to that titanic rematch. Word got out that Freider accepted a position at Arizona State for the following year, and then-athletics director Bo Schembechler hastened Freider's exit. "Bo addressed us and told us his famous speech, that he wanted a Michigan Man coaching a Michigan team, and that Steve Fisher was going to be the guy running the ship from this day forward," Mills noted. Freider didn't just disappear, Mills recalled. "He called us after every ballgame," Mills said. "Some of the games, he was actually at, whether he was around, or at the hotel across the street. He kept in contact with us throughout that whole run." While the Wolverines heard a familiar voice in Fisher calling out practice instructions, they absorbed a much different bark in Schembechler 's pre-tournament meeting with them. "He went after each one of us and challenged us," Mills recounted. "I can remember him going around the table. If any guys had any faults — because he'd read the papers and knew what we were saying and complaining about — he challenged us, right then and there. "Sean Higgins was kind of widely talking about not liking his situation, and he was going to possibly transfer. It was pretty much known. We're sitting there at 17, 18 years old, and all of a sudden Bo Schembechler says, 'Well, Higgins, if that's what you want to do, I've got the papers right here.' "He reached in his back pocket, and he's got the papers in his pocket. It was kind of like, 'Whoa.' "Then it was me. Bo said, 'I've heard a lot of things about you, and you need to start playing and stop talking about what you would like to do — start getting it done.' And then