Prove you are a Michigan Basketball fan
The joke replies in the "Michigan Basketball Resurgence" post made me think that this would be a good post. (and it is my first ever).
List your favorite michigan basketball players from the years that the teams were not as easy to watch as they've been the last few years.
My cool story bro - I shared freshman year orientation with Avery Queen and Josh Moore - one 7'3" and the other 5'8". They drove around in a red ford tempo.
My favorite player? Probably Senior year Graham Brown.
Demetrius Calip (in between the 89 team and the Fab Five)
Lester Abram
Lavelle Blanchard
Kevin Gaines
Ron Coleman!!!
Ron Coleman jerseys were a steal at TJ Max. $15 for a nike Michigan bball jersey? Yes Please
I loved Ron Coleman. I started calling Chuck Bailey "The X Factor" to my buddies. Then he left the team. Later, we all started calling Ron Coleman "The X Factor" as well; he inherited the nickname. It was meant to be semi-ironic. Regardless, I liked both of those guys a lot. Clearly.
i have a mini basketball signed by Lavelle. always liked that kid.
So many DC stories from West Quad. Kirk Taylor is my answer to the OP question though. A great guy who got screwed by a knee injury.
Leslie Rockymore 82 - 85
What, no Dan Pelekoudas or Eric Turner?
equating the two? I trust not.
Those were the days.
Remember seeing Amadou Ba on a bus on Halloween. He looked like he was just happy to be there. It was awesome.
Also drunkenly congratulated Graham Brown at a party in 2004 on Michigan winning the NIT. He wasn't super enthused about talking to me.
Graham Brown was the pre-Zack Novak.
Except Novak could dunk.
I was actually dunked on by him in a pickup game at the CCRB. My friend had just blocked his shot, so he took it out on me. I wasn't much of a match for him.
I saw Adamdou Ba outside of Brown Jug on a Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (I had a physics exam on Wednesday so going out seemed like the right move). This was right after the incedent at MSU with the drunk sparty before the game.
My friend asked him what the sparty said to provoke him.
He said, "I don't remember."
I still don't belive him.
/cool story bro
Garde Thompson
"En Garde"
A 6'3" early Stauskas prototype
At least 3 guys from west michigan on that team: Loy Vaught, Mark Hughes and Garde Thompson
Except that Garde was 6'1" on a good day. His cousin Joe Middleton was closer to 6'3".
Air Canada.
rooted for jevohn because he was canadian and i grew up in canada. plus him and a player from my high school in windsor were considered the number 1 and 2 players in ontario coming out of high school. the guy from high school went to central michigan to play for jay smith...
Tractor Traylor.
We were good (at times) with Tractor though. Big Ten Tournament Champs, and a #2 or #3 seed in the tourney if I recall. I think we beat Davidson and lost to UCLA.
lost to 6-seed UCLA in the 2nd round
Grote, green, Hubbard, Baxter and many more from 76. First team attached to and the rest is easy.
Oops.. Missed the qualifier "not easy to,watch". They were basketball Jones' eye candy.
Ok the Bodnar Twins.
Johnny rob!
Wayman Britt!
Tractor Traylor, man. Partly because my best friend growing up was a State fan and hated what B1G basketball was seen to be (and still is, really) and Traylor was the ultimate personification of bash-you-over-the-head hoops. Therefore out of rivalry spite I glorified in Traylor's play. Even so I still loved having a pretty much unstoppable force under the rim.
Those Michigan teams weren't quite in the realm of terrible that you're looking for, but I figure to find a team as "easy to watch" as the past few years you have to go back to the Fab Five.
Pettway could jump out of the damn gym.
Saw a commotion at a party, it was Pettway and the whole BBall team trying to get in. Went over to try to calm things down, came over yelling "what's going on?" with someone saying, do you know who this is??? This is AIR GEORGIA! Let him in! Ended up staring up at him, he was very friendly and just looking to have a good time.
Graham Brown and Bernard Robinson Jr.
LOVED watching Graham Brown play. Courtney Sims drove me batshit crazy, but I loved watching Brown bust his ass out there.
+1
Graham Brown is my pick as well. When he set a screen on you your lights went out!. Hardest working player I have scene except for Novack. I remeber watching him play with my dad and him saying man I love watching him play but I hope he studdies hard cause that gumpy white boy isn't making the nba lol.
Chris Young. An unheralded guy who played some absolutely horrible teams but worked his butt off and got better every year.
Also, LaVell Blanchard. He was a really good player as it was but man, wouldn't he have been a perfect fit for the Beilein system? A faceup 4 who could pound the glass and shoot the trey.
He was great his Senior year...
If you hadn't, I would've. Kid was a total goober his freshman year and a legitimate B1G center by his senior year. Worked his ass off to get there and a classy kid, but then again, what else would you expect from a Detroit CC kid?
At least now MSU is the team to have a bunch of weird guys and not us.
My freshman year (2002-03), team started 0-6 before a 13 game win streak including the best comeback I've ever seen in a game against the Badgers. Maize Rage was pretty sparse then but proud to say I was in it!
I have rooted for Gavin Groninger, Dom Ingerson, Avery Queen, and Kevin Gaines. Maurice Searight was a recruit that I was excited about.....so glad things are better now.
Wow! Gavin Groninger! That's a name I haven't heard in a long time! Wonder what he's up to?
I keed, I keed.
I was absolutely sure that Searight and Bernard Robinson would take our team to the Tourney eventually...B-Rob gave us some ridiculous games, but Searight threw away his career before it ever started.
Robbie Reid
Forgot about him and his mop top. He came in after Dugan fife left, right? I think he was a transfer.
I also remember how rocking Crisler Arena at the time was during our epic NIT run.
It's sad to think about how desperate we were back then for some college basketball wins.
My friends and I drove to NYC to watch the NIT final. Left Ann Arbor at 2am they day of...after I finished some homework, and others were done at the bar.
I was there when the played SC who had Renaldo Balkman
The one man press break, Kelvin Grady. He was great in the upset of Duke.
My dorm room in West Quad was next to Manny Harris.
I will openly admit to not being a big basketball fan though, but I am a fan of michigan.
Easy. Dom Ingerson. Google the name + "Lake"