No. 17 Michigan Is Rising to Occasion

The interim coach is given little chance of getting the job, but the team is on a roll with the NCAA tournament just ahead.

Could history repeat itself at Michigan?

Probably not. These Wolverines aren’t quite that good, even if they are one of only two teams to beat Duke.

After the way things ended up with Steve Fisher, Brian Ellerbe knows there’s no rush to give an interim coach the permanent job--although, yes, if you win the NCAA title as Fisher did in 1989, it makes it awfully tough to hire somebody else.

Still, the enigmatic Wolverines--a 23-8 team that beat Duke but lost to Eastern and Western Michigan--seem to be getting it together at the right time, advancing to the final of the Big Ten tournament against ninth-ranked Purdue today after an 85-69 victory over Minnesota in front of 21,711 at the United Center on Saturday.

Robert “Tractor” Traylor, Michigan’s nimble-footed 300-pound center, manned the inside, and Michigan’s self-proclaimed Chicago bomb squad opened it up for him by making 13 of 23 three-point attempts.

“The start of the year was a real tough situation,” Traylor said. “And no matter what the situation is, it’s real easy to get up for Duke, and not so easy to get up for Eastern Michigan.”

The 17th-ranked Wolverines are not deep, but when Michigan is making its shots from outside, watch out. Michigan dug Minnesota’s grave with a 15-0 run in less than three minutes midway through the first half.

“It’s very tough to defend them,” said Minnesota guard Eric Harris, whose team is headed to the National Invitation Tournament. “Robert Traylor, he’s probably one of the best big men in the country, and when he gets it down low, you’re pretty much at his mercy.

“Louis Bullock, Robbie Reid, Jerod Ward and Travis Conlan can make shots, and if you help out down low, you’ve get to get back out on them. A second or two late, and you’re burned.”

Reid, a transfer from Brigham Young, understands what it means to get burned. He left Brigham Young on a two-year Mormon mission, and his coach--who also happened to be his dad--got fired.

Reid transferred to Michigan, and then Fisher was fired shortly before the season partly because of his involvement with a booster who had drawn NCAA scrutiny.

“I’m smart enough to know this is definitely not a business I want to get into,” Reid said as he stood next to his father, Roger Reid, who was given the weekend off from his job as a Phoenix Suns assistant coach to watch his son play.

“With all due respect,” his son said, “it’s a job where you have to be a politician and a humorist as well as a basketball coach. You can’t expect to be in one place very long, and nowadays players have their own agenda, and you don’t know how long they’ll be there either.”

Roger Reid isn’t offended his son won’t follow his footsteps.

“He’d better not,” Reid said.

Ellerbe is awaiting a decision on his future while others speculate whether Seton Hall’s Tommy Amaker or George Washington’s Mike Jarvis will be offered the job.

Like Arizona State’s Don Newman, Ellerbe has found that athletic directors--perhaps rightly so--are no longer as quick as they used to be to hand the reins over to an unproven coach just because a team goes onto a nice run.

“Nothing has changed in terms of my job status. I would hope that doesn’t become an issue for us until the season is over,” Ellerbe said. “I feel it would take away from what our team is doing at the moment. There is no change, there’s been no change since October, and there wasn’t going to be a decision made until after the final game is played.”

Michigan has improved down the stretch partly because a foot injury to Maceo Baston that forced Ward to pick up his game. With Baston easing back into the lineup, Michigan is that much more versatile.

“We’ve never really peaked,” Reid said. “I still don’t think we’ve quite gotten there.”

No. 9 Purdue 68, No. 18 Illinois 47--The Boilermakers (26-6) are waiting for guard Jaraan Cornell to return from an ankle injury, but they rolled past the second-seeded Illini anyway.

Chad Austin scored 22 points and center Brad Miller scored 19 on eight-for-10 shooting for Purdue, which made 57% of its shots.

Illinois was held to 36% shooting, but the Illini (22-9) remain in solid position for the NCAA field.