COLLEGE BASKETBALL / GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI : One More Look at Michigan Before Saturday’s Semifinals

The Michigan Wolverines have been dissected more often than frogs in a high school biology lab. They have been praised, bashed, honored, critiqued, hyped, ripped, endorsed and denounced.

And that’s only in the last week.

But one fact is indisputable: There is something about Michigan’s players that captures the imagination and then torments it. Depending on your sightline, it is either the greatest college team ever assembled or the most underachieving: Fab Five or Fraud Five? Reality or myth?

Don’t bother asking Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino for an answer. Pitino, whose Wildcats play Michigan in an NCAA semifinal game Saturday at New Orleans, will swear the Wolverines don’t have a weakness. Any coach in his position would.

It is better to ask some of the coaches whose teams have already faced the Wolverines and now must watch the Final Four from afar. So we did.

The answers come courtesy of two Big Ten coaches and one coach from another major conference. But none wanted his name used.

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Michigan--Part II. The six questions that matter:

-- Who is Jalen Rose and why is he playing point guard?

Coach One: “Jalen is one of those great casual players who seems to be able to come up with the big play when the team needs it. They don’t have a real point guard, so he’s the guy. He’s an enigma. At 6 feet 8, he passes over guys, but he does it in a casual manner. He keys the fast break and he moves down the court faster than you think.”

Coach Two: “Offensively, he’s not a point guard and defensively he’s not a point guard. He runs their offense, but he’s not a guy who can pressure a ballhandler on the other team. I saw them lose to Duke (earlier this season), and they had a hard time with (Blue Devil point guard) Bobby Hurley. As tall as Rose is, he can’t really get down and defend (against) a good ballhandler. He can’t do it with (Kentucky’s) Travis Ford, and I don’t know if he wants to.”

Coach Three: “I think a team like Kentucky or Kansas, a team that has very quick guards, could hurt them.”

-- As you prepared your game plan against Michigan, what gave you hope?

Coach One: “They tend to coast a little bit from time to time, waiting for someone else to get the job done. Maybe it’s Juwan Howard waiting for Chris Webber, or Webber waiting for Howard, or Howard and Webber waiting for Rose. But believe it or not, I think Michigan is a very, very unselfish team.”

Coach Two: “We wanted to constantly push the ball upcourt. We wanted to make their big guys run sprints. We wanted to see Howard, Webber and (Eric) Riley do some sprints and then see what kind of shape they were in once the second half began.

“The thing about Michigan, and maybe it has to do with having so many young players, is that they sometimes lose their concentration. They do give you chances to win. It’s like their game against George Washington (in the regional semifinals). I really thought, and I told people this, that (the Colonials) were going to get their butts kicked. I figured, ‘OK, Michigan got its scare against UCLA.’ Then I see the score late in the game and I’m getting ticked off at (Michigan). I’m saying, ‘How could you do this? You’ve got a lot of weapons.’ ”

Coach Three: “We felt that No. 1, we had to stop their running game. No. 2, we felt we had to do a pretty good job on the boards. You’ve got to remember that their best shot is the rebound shot. With 6-8 (Rose) and 6-5 (Jimmy King) guards, they can just kill you with offensive rebounds. No. 3, we felt we had to do a good job (defending) their inside game. They’re awesome inside.”

-- After losing to Michigan in the West Regional final, Temple Coach John Chaney ripped the Wolverines for taunting and he even took a shot at Coach Steve Fisher for allowing such behavior. What gives?

Coach One: “Michigan is very confident. They’re very arrogant. Sometimes they reach down and they’re very determined. They’re a team that if you watch them and watch their antics, they’re hard to like. I think that is what’s happening across the country with them.

“Chaney got upset with the trash talking. But that’s a style (Michigan) has had for two years. It’s not something new. I mean, they’re kind of a team you love to hate. It’s hard to root for a team that maybe should be playing better than they are. And it’s hard to root for a team that gives you that in-your-face stuff.”

-- When discussing Michigan, what little-known fact gets forgotten?

Coach One: “They’ve been labeled by some people as underachievers, as blase when they get on the court. Everyone looks at (Michigan’s) talent, at the close games, and automatically assumes they underachieved. But maybe people fail to give credit to the opposing team and to the people who put that game plan into play.”

Coach Two: “Their physical presence on the court. You wonder if you’re going to get a rebound at all. You say, ‘Are we ever going to get a rebound against these guys?’ ”

Coach Three: “Three of Michigan’s last seven games have gone to overtime. That’s just the way they are. In a way, it’s good because it means you’ve been involved in a lot of close games, that you’re tough. But when you let people get that close, you’re eventually going to lose one of those.”

-- If you had to pick a reason why Michigan won’t win the national championship, what would it be?

Coach One: “Inconsistency in outside shooting. Whenever you see (guard Rob) Pelinka or (forward James) Voskuil in the game, that means they’re having trouble hitting from the outside. I’ll say that Michigan has great talent, but yet they have some team deficiencies at times. They have a reluctance to shoot the outside shot. They know their strength is inside.”

Coach Two: “I remember us using a matchup zone and only paying specific attention to three perimeter shooters: Pelinka, Voskuil and King. And it wasn’t because King was a great outside shooter, but because he took the big shots, the big three-pointers, the kind of shots that would keep them in a game or put the other team out of it.”

Coach Three: “I think they’re vulnerable to Kentucky because of the fast break. I think Kentucky could run on them.”

-- And one reason why Michigan might win it all?

Coach One: “They seem to struggle and come through. They come up with what they need to do.”

Coach Two: “Their physical talent.”

Coach Three: “(Forward Ray) Jackson is playing better all the time. They have a tremendous front line, Riley backing up and all kinds of experience on the bench. If they play really play, it’s hard for anybody to beat them. They have a tendency to play to the level of the competition. Considering who made it to the Final Four, that could be good for them.”

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Still no sightings of Bobby Cremins, who was all but ordered by Georgia Tech Athletic Director Homer Rice to take a much-needed vacation after the recent job debacle at South Carolina.

Cremins was an absolute rambling wreck after an ordeal during which he rejected a Gamecock offer to return to his alma mater . . . then accepted it . . . then, after a lavish welcome-home news conference in Columbia, S.C., rejected it again.

South Carolina officials and boosters, who had wined, dined and wooed Cremins for weeks, were irate. So steamed was Gamecock Athletic Director Mike McGee that you could have boiled a pot of tea on his forehead.

Granted, Cremins handled the situation with all the aplomb of the Three Stooges.

His heartstrings were pulled and tugged by competing loves: His alma mater, where he played 23 years ago, and Georgia Tech, a program he had turned into a national power. In the end, loyalty to the present meant more than loyalty to the past.

Cremins made the right decision. He led with his heart, rather than his wallet. He had made a commitment to his players, and by remaining at Tech, he simply chose to honor it.

Shortly after his final decision, Cremins released a statement, which read in part: “I made a mistake, and this is the most embarrassing moment of my life.”

To the contrary. Cremins could have taken the money and run. Instead, he stayed put. Embarrassing? Try refreshing.

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Indiana’s Bob Knight, on the mystery of Knight: “You’ve never seen my Indiana team practice. You’ve never been in the locker room when I’m talking to my team, so you really don’t know what I’m like, except all that . . . you read. You need to come watch us, but your problem is that I wouldn’t let you.”

Knight, on players he recruits: “I’ll see a kid play and I say to myself, ‘That kid can’t play for me.’ Well, that simply means one thing: The kid can’t play for me. That doesn’t mean that he’s a bad player or that he’s a bad kid. He may be a hell of a player and he may be the best kid possible, but he has a way of playing or an approach to playing that isn’t going to fit into what I want to do.”

Knight, on misperceptions: “It always amuses me. I’ll see somewhere where a guy writes, ‘Boy, I could never play for Knight.’ That’s usually something that’s written, meaning I’m such a bad guy.

“Well, for most of you, it would be good for you to have a friend like me. Guys that say, ‘I couldn’t play for him,’ better think, ‘I’ll bet there’s no way Knight would have me on his team.’ But that usually isn’t done.”

College Basketball Notes

Western Kentucky Coach Ralph Willard is the heavy favorite to get the South Carolina job. . . . The short list of candidates for the Washington coaching position has been trimmed to about five names--George Washington’s Mike Jarvis, Illinois State’s Bob Bender, Tulane’s Perry Clark, Southern Methodist’s John Shumate and Duke assistant Mike Brey.

Top 10 As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. Team Record 1. Kentucky 30-3 2. North Carolina 32-4 3. Kansas 29-6 4. Michigan 30-4 5. Indiana 31-4 6. Cincinnati 27-5 7. Arkansas 22-9 8. Temple 20-13 9. California 21-9 10. Florida State 25-10

Waiting list: George Washington (21-9), Vanderbilt (28-6), Western Kentucky (26-6), Virginia (21-10), Louisville (22-9).