Fisher Elevated to Head Coach : Wolverines Assistant Guided Team to NCAA Title

Steve Fisher, a little-known assistant a month ago who guided Michigan to the NCAA basketball championship, was named today as permanent coach of the Wolverines.

Michigan Athletic Director Bo Schembechler said Fisher, 44, would bring a new approach to the program, but not let it slip.

“I look at it as a continuation of what this young coach has done in the time since he took over the Michigan team in the NCAA tournament and led it to the national championship,” Schembechler said.

“I went from someone who very few people knew--and even those who knew me, very few knew me well--to one who everybody in America felt they knew,” Fisher said. “For that, I’m tremendously indebted to our players.

“To have an opportunity to be head basketball coach at such a prestigious athletic institution as the University of Michigan defies descriptions of words,” Fisher said.

Team sources who spoke on condition of anonymity had said Fisher was the only candidate interviewed for the Michigan job.

The move comes one week after Fisher, an assistant to Bill Frieder for seven years, guided the Wolverines to the national title in an 80-79 overtime victory over Seton Hall in Seattle.

Fisher, who during the Final Four was referred to on national television as “Steve Frieder,” took over the Wolverines on the eve of the NCAA tournament when Frieder accepted a job at Arizona State.

An angry 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.

The team’s award banquet is scheduled for 8 p.m. tonight in Crisler Arena and it was obvious Schembechler wanted Fisher named to the post in time to be introduced at the dinner.

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, whose football programs have been a model of integrity, refused to be stampeded.

“Until the tournament, he hadn’t seen me do much of anything,” Fisher said. “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 he first had to be sure rumors of improprieties in Frieder’s program were either unfounded or did not involve Fisher.

Meanwhile, 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 Tom Monaghan.

“I don’t think it’s going to change much,” Fisher said. “Maybe I can do an American Express commercial. ‘Hi, you don’t know me, but . . . . ‘ “