Report Says Fisher to Get Michigan Job

Steve Fisher, who in 20 remarkable days guided Michigan to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball championship, will be named coach of the Wolverines at a news conference today, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

The move will come one week after the 44-year-old Fisher coached the Wolverines to the national title with a 80-79 overtime victory over Seton Hall.

Sources close to the team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Sunday that Fisher was the only candidate interviewed by Bo Schembechler, the football coach who also is athletic director.

Fisher, who was an assistant to Bill Frieder for seven years, took over the Wolverines on the eve of the NCAA tournament when Frieder accepted a job at Arizona State.

Schembechler, saying, “A Michigan man will coach Michigan, not an Arizona State man,” refused to accept Frieder’s 21-day notice and banned him from coaching the team in the tournament.

After the Wolverines won the title, there was an immediate clamor, both locally and in the national media, for Schembechler to remove the “interim” from in front of Fisher’s name. Schembechler refused to be stampeded.

“Until the tournament, he hadn’t seen me do much of anything,” Fisher said Saturday. “He said he wasn’t going to make an emotional, popular decision and name me before or right after (the tournament). And I said I didn’t expect him to do that.”

It was clear that Fisher was the man Schembechler wanted. But Schembechler first had to be investigate whether rumors of improprieties in Frieder’s program were involved Fisher.

“You have to wonder about what baggage a person brings to the job, whether it’s an internal or outside hire,” said Jack Weidenbach, the associate athletic director who actually runs the office while Schembechler is coaching. “We want a program like the ones we admire at Indiana, North Carolina or Duke. Michigan has no reason not to have a first-class program that wins by the rules.”

Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski and Evansville Coach Jim Crews were believed to be other candidates in whom Michigan was interested, but they never were interviewed.

“Bo told me on Wednesday that he had not talked to any other candidate,” Fisher said. “He said he had talked to other people about other people. But that was Wednesday.”

Fisher was interviewed Wednesday and Friday, the coach said.

“The talks were positive by nature,” Fisher said. “The bulk of it was small talk, and I don’t know if you could term it an interview. A lot of good things were said about the games.”

Fisher said contract terms were not discussed. Fisher said he’d be glad to work with a year-to-year handshake deal, the same arrangement Frieder had.

While this was going on, Fisher and his wife Angie have been on a whirlwind rise from obscurity to celebrity. Thursday night, they attended a black-tie dinner at the White House and spent the night there, sleeping in the bedroom immediately above the President’s.

Friday, he was in Detroit for the opening of the Tigers’ home season and watched the game from the private box of club owner Thomas S. Monaghan, the head of Domino’s Pizza.