12/03/24
November 07, 2002
People may forget Webber's tainted timeout call after this: Michigan bans basketball team from 2003 postseason play . What's more:
The school also agreed to forfeit all games for five seasons, including the 1992 and 1993 Final Fours. The entire 1992-93 campaign, and all the seasons from fall 1995 through spring of 1999 were forfeited by the school. The University has removed four championship banners that were hanging in Crisler Arena, and will excise mention of any victories from all programs and written materials.Why? Booster Ed Martin detailed $616,000 that he lent to four Wolverine players during the 90's. Big whoops for a big powerhouse.
posted by Ufez Jones to basketball at 12:04 PM - 10 comments
I think the best players might leave. Of course, they will probably not be able to play for a new team during 2003 season, so maybe they'll stay after all. If every NCAA Division I school banned their basketball team from the postseason because of illegal booster money, I think there would be very few teams left to play. Do you honestly think there are top NCAA basketball programs that don't get a little help from their booster friends? I would like to think so, but I'm skeptical.
posted by jacknose at 01:21 PM on November 07, 2002
Tainted time out? He traveled at the other end of the floor! I do feel bad for the players though.
posted by trox at 01:48 PM on November 07, 2002
Call me a cynic, but I think Michigan's actions are purely out of self-interest. Now that they've recruited some top freshmen they want to get their punishment over with as quickly as possible. They know they'll be punished by the NCAA eventually so they want to get it over with before they have a good team. They also want to clear the clouds of the NCAA investigation hanging over their program so it won't hurt their recruiting. Do you think they'd agree to forfeit their tournament victories if they'd actually won one of those championship games?
posted by Steve-o at 01:54 PM on November 07, 2002
FWIW, they don't exactly have tons of good players ATM- they really, really sucked the past two years. [My senior year at Duke we hung something like thirty points in a row on them.] It makes the 'banning ourselves from postseason play' bit a tad disingenous.
That said, they're forfeiting probably something like 100 wins, which has got to hurt, and final four banners, with or without the national championship banner to go with them, are something that has got to hurt to take down.
posted by tieguy at 02:13 PM on November 07, 2002
Couldn't they just forfeit the 1989 Championship? That Seton Hall should've won anyway? Yes, I'm still bitter.
posted by Justin Slotman at 02:58 PM on November 07, 2002
Justin: I'm still bitter about the 1989 semi-finals when Michigan beat Illinois on an over-the-back noncall putback, especially since we had beaten them twice that season. Anyone else think that the players that took the money like Webber should pay Michigan for what they did?
posted by gyc at 07:04 PM on November 07, 2002
Chris Webber might end up paying for it in the big house, but not for taking the money, for allegedly lying about it. If the players were paid a fraction of the dollars they bring into their colleges, situations like this would be a lot less frequent.
posted by Steve-o at 08:30 PM on November 07, 2002
gyc: IIRC, when Marcus Camby cost UMass a couple hundred thousand for their forfeited final four trip, he reimbursed them.
posted by tieguy at 10:19 PM on November 07, 2002
I don't follow college basketball but I remember when something similar to this happened to the University of Minnesota men's basketball team a few years ago. Remember the cheating scandal? Big, big deal in my neck of the woods, since the college I worked at within the U counted many players among its students. Sucked to be the decent rule-abiding players among the rotten apples, especially for the next five years or for however long they imposed penalties upon the program.
posted by evixir at 03:33 AM on November 08, 2002
The people that I feel sorry for are those playing their sophomore, junior, or senior years right now for UM. They were scouted and recruited under the premise of being in a very top program, getting lots of media attention, and a good chance of promotion to the NBA. Now, the entire team must be demoralised, with no chance of going to the playoffs (which is all that 80% of the country pays attention to anyways). I wonder if there's going to be a mass emigration from the underclassmen.