April 4 1992
www.sports-reference.com/cbb/...
Notable players: Chris Webber Jalen Rose Nick Van Exel Juwan Howard Jimmy King Ray Jackson Corie Blount Anthony Buford James Voskuil
Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson showed up to Minneapolis, Minnesota with their usual flashiness, displays of insane athleticism, and their brash cockiness for the '92 Final Four. All of this attitude was met with the same energy by a 6 foot 1 guard from Kenosha, Wisconsin, named Nick Van Exel and his Cincinnati Bearcats.
Cincinnati utilized a full-court press implemented by coach Bob Huggins throughout the regular season, finishing with a 29-4 record and finished the season on a 10 game win streak. Van Exel-who didn't become a starter until the middle of the season-was joined in the backcourt with Anthony Buford, the second leading scorer on the team with just over 15 points a game, as well as future first round pick Corie Blount. Michigan had an all star cast of freshmen, also known as the Fab Five, who led the Wolverines to a 25-9 season, a big improvement over the years prior of 14-15.
In a game filled with high tension, the stage was set for a highly intense ballgame with players unafraid to show their dislike for one another, in particular Jimmy King and Nick Van Exel.
Michigan would escape with a 4 point victory and a date in the championship game with the Duke Blue Devils, thanks to the help of the game slowing down and UC missing too many shots to implement their full court press.
Now the coaches: Bob Huggins and Steve Fisher. Fisher, who got the head coaching job at Michigan because during the 1989 NCAA Tournament, Bill Frieder-head coach- informed athletic director Bo Schembechler of his intention to accept the University of Arizona coaching position following the current season. When informing Schembechler, the AD ordered Frieder to leave immediately and placed Fisher as the interim head coach. Michigan went on an improbable tournament run; Fisher rode the coattails of star Glen Rice and captured the NCAA championship as the interim coach. He was named the permanent head coach a week after the championship game. After two down years, Fisher and his staff did a helluva job recruiting (some of which was done by the players as well) nabbing 5 freshman, 2 of which were first team All-Americans (Webber and Howard), two second team All-Americans (King and Rose), and a diamond in the rough from San Antonio Texas in Ray Jackson. Webber was the consensus best player in high school in America by a wide margin, considered the biggest prize anyone could have gotten in the 1991 high school class. World, say hello to the Michigan Fab Five. Meanwhile, a former high school star that was in year 3 of his new prestigious job at the University of Cincinnati was just getting a Hall of Fame coaching career underway. After a 71-26 record in the NAIA at Walsh University (shoutout), and a 97-46 record at Akron, Bob Huggins rose the college coaching ladder. The program he stepped into hadn't made the NCAA Tournament since 1977. He was just getting started at UC with flashy PG Nick Van Exel, and with constructing a successful ballclub, the Bearcats future looked bright in Ohio with Huggins manning the sidelines.
Fisher would sniff national championships with the remaining players of the Fab Five following these years, but would be let go by Michigan under a cloud of a booster scandal involving players on his Michigan team receiving benefits. One of these players was reported to be Chris Webber. Fisher was fired in 1997, but he wasn't done manning the sidelines. After a season as an assistant with Webber's Sacramento Kings, Fisher returned to college basketball at San Diego State. The Aztecs most recent NCAA Tournament appearance was in 1985. By his third year, Fisher had SDSU with a record of 21 and 12. Fisher led San Diego State to their first ever Division 1 postseason victory, and completely refurbished the program. Fisher remained as coach from 1999 to 2017, where he amassed 386 wins. In the 2010-11 season, his Aztecs went 31-5 with some kid named Kawhi Leonard, reaching the Sweet Sixteen. His former assistant at Michigan and SDSU, Brian Dutcher, is now the head coach, and started one season 26-0, finishing 30-2 (tournament was cancelled because of COVID-19), and is continuously growing the program.
Huggins amassed even more success, with Cincinnati and now West Virginia. Huggins left UC in 2005 under a dark cloud similar to Fisher, being forced to resign because of a DUI and the school's president "Zimpher said that the Bearcat program under Huggins didn't fit with her plan to upgrade UC's academic reputation." Like schools really give a shit. Nonetheless, he left as the winningest coach in the program's history. Huggins then turned around his alma matter, amassing 326 wins to the present day and a Hall of Fame enshrinement.