Michigan is basketball's forgotten blueblood
Thanks to football, the Wolverines rarely get spoken of like a hoops power. But history — both ancient and recent — tells a different story.
CHICAGO — They were almost two ships passing in the night.
More than two decades later, they’re celebrating a Final Four berth together.
Anna May and her growing family needed a place to live in 2005. Her husband had just landed his first full-time assistant coaching gig at Eastern Michigan, and the family did not know the lay of the land in Ypsilanti, Mich.
Enter Chrislan Manuel, an area realtor whose husband was an associate athletic director at nearby University of Michigan.
Chrislan found the May family a home that spring. That summer, Chrislan was on the move herself, with her husband taking the AD job at Buffalo.
And 19 years later, Anna’s husband interviewed with Chrislan’s husband for Michigan’s head-coaching job, where Dusty May told Warde Manuel of the full-circle moment, then won him over to become the Wolverines’ next leader.
“So maybe that was it,” Warde, who had been unaware of the connection until he met with Dusty, said with a smile.
Michigan is in the Final Four for the ninth time in program history, a number that doubles as the ninth-most appearances in the sport’s history (including vacated seasons). The Wolverines enter this weekend in Indianapolis as the favorites to win it all, which would mark their second national title.
How are they doing this?
How do they keep doing this?
