COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S FINAL FOUR : A Fab Coach? : Michigan Has Enjoyed Tremendous Success, but Many Think of Fisher as Merely a Caretaker of a Team With Five Talented Sophomores

In a sport often dominated by the suits on the sidelines, Michigan basketball Coach Steve Fisher is an anomaly.

This week in New Orleans, he will coach his third Final Four team in five years--for some of the game’s tacticians, more than enough reason to open a restaurant and write an autobiography.

Do not, however, expect Fisher to be deified any time soon.

“He’ll never get his due with that team,” George Washington Coach Mike Jarvis said.

That team is, of course, the Fab Five.

Michigan’s five enormously talented young starters reached last year’s Final Four, where they lost to Duke in the championship game. Now they are back, as sophomores.

Fisher is back, too, in case anybody cares.

Apple-cheeked, looking more like a high school geometry teacher than a big-time college coach, Fisher is, at least publicly, low-key by nature.

Still, even if he displayed more charisma, it’s doubtful he would be considered anything other than a caretaker for his high-profile team. Such is the nature of the game.

“Most people are not going to give you a lot of credit when you have a group of men like that,” said Illinois Coach Lou Henson, who has been similarly characterized over the years. “Steve deserves a lot of credit, but you usually don’t get it in the situation he’s in.”

Fisher definitely does not get a lot of respect.

Late in the first half of the Temple-Michigan West Regional final last Sunday in Seattle, Owl Coach John Chaney showed his contempt for Fisher by reportedly telling him at one point: “Shut the hell up, you SOB.” During last year’s Southeast Regional final, Ohio State Coach Randy Ayers reportedly twice pointed at Fisher and shouted: “Sit down!”

After the Wolverines struggled to beat 12th-seeded George Washington in the West Regional semifinals last Friday, Jarvis said Fisher “probably has the toughest job in America.”

From the beginning, Fisher’s tenure as Michigan coach has appeared to be more a matter of luck than design, a circumstance bound to cause others to consider him a lightweight.

A career assistant--first at Western Michigan, then at Michigan--Fisher fell into his head coaching opportunity, becoming interim coach of the Wolverines two days before the 1989 NCAA tournament when it became known that Bill Frieder, then the Michigan coach, had decided to move to Arizona State.

The next three weeks were the stuff of dreams for Michigan and Fisher. The Wolverines went on to win the NCAA title, and the championship run left Bo Schembechler, then the Michigan athletic director, little choice but to give Fisher the head coaching position on a permanent basis.

“Like our freshmen (last year), I was a novelty act in ‘89,” Fisher said, “a lucky guy hanging onto Glen Rice’s coattails.”

Two years later, however, the magic had worn off. In 1990-91, the Wolverines finished 14-15. Fisher appeared to be in danger of losing his job.

Enter the Fab Five: two Detroit high school stars, forward Chris Webber and point guard Jalen Rose; two Texans, guard Jimmy King and forward Ray Jackson, and a highly sought player from Chicago, center Juwan Howard.

Cynics in the Big Ten suggested that Rose and Webber were part of a package deal that included Rose’s high school coach, Perry Watson, now a Michigan assistant. But Fisher’s mellow style apparently had something to do with the recruiting coup.

Said Webber: “We didn’t want to play for somebody ranting and raving all the time.”

Fisher has indeed given his young players a lot of leeway--too much in the view of some of his peers.

The Wolverines wear black socks, black shoes and baggy shorts. They show their emotions, often with a touch of arrogance.

Chaney, for one, raised the issue after Michigan had beaten his team in the West Regional final.

“We don’t go out looking for fights or making taunts or gestures,” he said. “I respect coaches who raise their kids the right way. When I see taunting and gyrating, I don’t like coaches who let that happen.”

He did not mention Fisher by name, but the implication was clear: Michigan’s players lacked the discipline that comes from a firm leader on the bench.

Further questions about Fisher’s hold on his team have been raised by the spotty way the Wolverines have played in this year’s tournament. After blowing out Coastal Carolina in the first round, Michigan has struggled against UCLA, George Washington and Temple, surviving on sheer talent.

How much more Fisher could do with his team isn’t exactly clear, however.

“(The Wolverines) do a lot of things very, very well,” Jarvis said this week. “It’s just that because they’re so talented, they don’t have to do them all the time. I mean, those guys, when they have to, they can play some unbelievable defense. When they have to execute, they can execute.

“That doesn’t happen by itself. They’re coached, and they’re coached well. But when you’ve got that much talent, the smart thing is to back off. Any coach in that position . . . if he’s smart enough to let players create things, I think he’s far ahead of the game. In many ways, Steve Fisher is probably smarter than most of the guys who are coaching.”

Said Henson: “A lot of people say, ‘Michigan, they’re not patient enough.’ Well, if I had a team like Steve’s, I’d go ahead and let them put the ball up. That can only enhance your chance of winning. I mean, their best shot is a rebound shot.”

Fisher has shown that he can be tough on his players at times. He benched Rose in overtime against UCLA, and he gave Webber a dressing-down at halftime of the Temple game.

“Sometimes people think Fisher just throws the ball up and lets us play,” Rose said. “That’s not the case.”

Truth be told, those close to Fisher say he is a decent strategist and a coach who likes to have all his bases covered, his meticulousness bordering on paranoia.

He requires all reporters covering his team to contact him before calling his players, and he has basically stopped talking to the Detroit Free Press reporter who in early March broke the story that Rose had been ticketed for loitering in a house where drugs had been sold.

That side of Fisher, however, rarely surfaces in public, where he is the proverbial Mr. Nice Guy who just happens to have a killer team.

He downplays his role, saying “good players get you (to the top), good players keep you there.”

Of Chaney’s criticism, he said: “The game makes fruitcakes out of the sanest. Frustration does that. John Chaney, I don’t know him well, but what little I know of him, he’s a gentleman.”

Toughest job in America?

Hardly.

“I think I’ve got the best job in America,” Fisher said. “It doesn’t matter where you are. At this level, there are expectations. Maybe the expectations are greater for us, but we’ve got a good team. I’d much rather have this group than any other.”