When Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and his wife, Lupe, went to Ingham County court recently to finalize the adoption of their infant son, Steven, they found themselves in front of Judge E. George Economy.
Economy, chief judge of Ingham County Probate Court, is a true Maize-and-Blue man, Michigan class of ’65, Michigan Law class of ’68. He also happens to be a friend of the Izzo family. As the brief proceeding was drawing to a close, Economy leaned across the bench and told Izzo he would approve the adoption on one condition.
“I said, `Tommy, if you want the kid, you’re going to have to agree to go coach at Michigan,'” Economy said.
Economy chuckled as he recalled the anecdote the other day. But like many Michigan alums, he finds no humor in the vast gap between Izzo’s powerhouse and Michigan’s bedraggled basketball program. The teams renew their rivalry, such as it is, Tuesday night in Ann Arbor.
The last time they met, in East Lansing last March, the Spartans buried Michigan 114-63. The result neatly summed up a tale of two programs: It was both the worst loss in Michigan basketball history and the victory that clinched Michigan State’s share of a third consecutive Big Ten title.
Izzo is the fiery standard-bearer for Michigan State’s rise, just as Wolverines coach Brian Ellerbe has come to personify Michigan’s fall from prominence. Izzo, who turns 46 Tuesday, last summer rejected a $15 million offer to coach the Atlanta Hawks; the 37-year-old Ellerbe hears constant speculation that he will be fired at season’s end.
“Tom Izzo is going to do all of us a favor because it’s going to put the pressure on Michigan to compete with its in-state rival,” said Economy, a former chairman of the University of Michigan Alumni Club of Lansing. “I want to tell you something: You have all these old-time alums who are looking at this [Michigan] team and saying, `This is not acceptable.'”
It wasn’t ever thus. Ten years ago this spring, Michigan signed perhaps the most heralded recruiting class in college basketball history. With their baggy shorts, shaved heads and flapping jaws, the Fab Five stormed to the 1992 and 1993 national finals and left a deep imprint on the campus game.
But in the decade since Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King stepped onto Michigan’s leafy campus, the state’s rival Big Ten teams have undergone breathtaking transformations.
After finishing eighth in 1993, the last year of the Fab Five’s run, Michigan State emerged from Michigan’s shadow and laid the foundation for what is widely regarded as college basketball’s next dynasty; Michigan State won the NCAA title last spring, and is threatening to repeat. The fifth-ranked Spartans play in the rocking, sold-out Breslin Center, where they have won 40 straight.
Michigan, meanwhile, is mocked around the Big Ten as the “Woe-verines.” Michigan rarely draws five-figure crowds to 13,000-seat Crisler Arena, and the building is threatening to replace the library as the popular study spot on campus. Why? It’s quiet, and there’s plenty of room to spread out.
“Everyone who has played there loves Michigan, so it’s difficult to watch this happening,” said former Wolverine Jamal Crawford, now with the Bulls. “We know that Michigan will rise again. We’re just waiting for that day.”
That day never seemed farther away than it did on Dec. 9, when Michigan fell behind Duke 34-2 on its way to a 104-61 drubbing at Durham. But the humiliating loss seemed inconsequential compared to Michigan’s off-the-court troubles.
The program continues to be haunted by the specter of Ed Martin, the former booster who allegedly made payments to players. And efforts to instill stability have failed as players either have left early for the NBA or have been kicked off the team for disciplinary reasons.
“The distractions outside have led to the situation that exists at Michigan,” ESPN analyst Digger Phelps said.
It’s difficult to pinpoint the precise moment in the last decade when Michigan’s program stalled and Michigan State’s kicked into high gear. Some observers of the rivalry say it happened when Mateen Cleaves, then a hot-shot high school guard from Flint, piled into a Ford Explorer with five Wolverines on a February 1996 recruiting visit to Ann Arbor. The players were on their way back from an off-campus party when the vehicle overturned at about 5 a.m. on a Saturday. The most serious injury was suffered by Wolverines star Robert Traylor, who broke his arm. But the damage to the program went far deeper.
Cleaves wound up signing with the Spartans, whom he would lead to the 1999 Final Four and the 2000 national title. It may be too simplistic to say Cleaves would have gone to Ann Arbor had the Explorer stayed on the road; Cleaves was probably destined for East Lansing anyway.
But the accident fed perceptions, born in the Fab Five era, that Michigan’s dazzling talent outpaced its leadership. When the booster scandal broke, the problem had gone beyond perception.
“We knew why we were losing kids to Michigan, but there was nothing we could do about it,” former Spartans coach Jud Heathcote said from his home in Washington state. “Since the Ed Martin fiasco, maybe Michigan and Michigan State are going to recruit on even terms.”
Michigan officials cited a lack of control in the program when they fired coach Steve Fisher shortly before the 1997-98 season. Fisher declined to discuss his time at Michigan, but in a telephone interview from his office at San Diego State, he noted fortunes can change quickly in college ball.
“When we were there, it was Michigan getting the headlines that Michigan State is getting now,” Fisher said. “People have short memories.”
If Michigan officials thought firing Fisher would make everything right, they were terribly wrong. Ellerbe briefly restored school pride when he led the Wolverines to the inaugural Big Ten tournament title in 1998. But while he has proved to be as adept as Fisher in recruiting, Ellerbe hasn’t come close to duplicating Fisher’s success; Ellerbe is 61-51 with one NCAA tournament victory in three seasons.
And the program has remained in turmoil, with players running into trouble off the court and leaving long before their eligibility expired.
Ellerbe gained national attention two years ago when he signed a class that included Crawford and Kevin Gaines, a startlingly talented backcourt tandem.
Crawford was forced to sit out a portion of last season when the NCAA ruled that he had received improper benefits from a wealthy benefactor as a high school student. The charge had nothing to do with Michigan, but it became another headache for Ellerbe. Crawford jumped to the NBA after only 17 games in a Michigan uniform. Gaines was kicked off the team after an alcohol-related arrest last Labor Day.
Crawford is quick to defend Ellerbe from what he calls “very unjust” criticism.
“He’s a great person even more than he is a great coach,” Crawford said. “He didn’t want us to be just great players, he wanted us to be great young men. I think he definitely accomplished that.”
But Ellerbe last week absorbed another recruiting-related blow when Michigan recruit Dommanic Ingerson, a highly touted guard from Santa Barbara, Calif., was suspended for the second time this season by his high school coach. Ingerson was first suspended for taunting an opponent, and most recently for wiping sweat from his forehead onto the ball and handing it to an official who had made a call against him.
Ingerson may turn out to be a model citizen. But his suspensions only meant more bad news for Ellerbe, who generally doesn’t have to defend his players until they have enrolled at Michigan.
By contrast, Izzo took little heat last year when he recruited Zach Randolph, who had several brushes with the law in high school. That seeming double standard may be attributable to results: Izzo wins and Randolph has stayed out of trouble in his freshman year at MSU.
While Ellerbe’s future is the source of speculation, his dismissal is not a foregone conclusion. However, he lost a key supporter when the man who promoted him, Tom Goss, was removed as athletic director last year. Ellerbe has highly placed supporters, including Jim Stapleton, a member of the Board in Control of Intercollegiate Athletics who gave the coach a public pat on the back at the panel’s monthly meeting in January.
“That program has been, by any measure, under a lot of stress and difficulty, a lot of which they didn’t create,” Stapleton said. “And I think we could do a better job of showing support for them at this time.”
Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin declined to discuss Ellerbe’s future. But Martin didn’t hesitate when he was asked how Michigan might return to the elite. His carefully crafted words could be interpreted as an indictment of Ellerbe, who has made big recruiting splashes but never seems to have enough depth to contend in the rugged Big Ten.
“We have a ways to go to build our program back,” Martin said. “It takes stability. You build a program, not a team. You get players who make a commitment for four years.”
Martin said he would like Michigan to emulate Purdue, which annually contends for conference titles despite having few NBA prospects. Coach Gene Keady’s players typically stay four years and leave West Lafayette with degrees.
“You really need to build a program that, by and large, the kids are going to be there four years,” Martin said. “That way you have veterans who tell the new guys, `This is how we act at Michigan.'”
That’s the sort of stability they have enjoyed in East Lansing. Last year Michigan State rode to the NCAA title on the backs of seniors Cleaves, Morris Peterson and A.J. Granger.
Izzo may yet face a churning roster–Randolph is rumored to be considering turning pro this year, as is star sophomore Jason Richardson–but for now the Spartans are in reload mode.
Izzo already has signed guard Kelvin Torbert of Flint, who is among the nation’s top-rated prospects. Score another one for the Spartans at Michigan’s expense.
“For the next five years it’s going to be hard [for Michigan] to catch State,” said Grover Kirkland, Torbert’s coach at Flint Northwestern High School. “You have kids all over the state looking at Michigan State and taking pride.”
But Michigan has its pride too. Or perhaps it is the arrogance born of years of athletic success. Either way, many observers sense Michigan is growing desperate to answer the Spartans’ recent run.
“They’re not going to wait very long,” Kirkland said. “It’s like Ohio State in football [which recently fired coach John Cooper]. They want to be at the top.”
