By Ron Griffitts
Contributing columnist
On April 5, 1993 in the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana the Michigan Wolverines (31-4) coached by Steve Fisher met the North Carolina Tar Heels (33-4) coached by future Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith.
Michigan was led by the fabulous five sophomores Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson who as freshman had led Michigan to the 1992 title game.
North Carolina was led by 7’ junior center Eric Montross (15.8 ppg, 7.6 rpg), 6’ 8” senior forward George Lynch (14.7 ppg, 9.6 rpg), 6’ 3” sophomore guard Donald Williams (14.3 ppg), 6’ 6” junior forward Brian Reese (11.4 ppg, 3.6 ppg) and 6’ 4” junior guard Derrick Phelps (4.4 rpg).
The Wolverines were led by 6’ 9” sophomore forward Chris Webber (19.2 ppg, 10.1 rpg), 6’ 8” sophomore guard Jalen Rose (15.4 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 3.9 apg), 6’ 9” sophomore center Juwan Howard (14.6 ppg, 1.4 rpg,), 6’ 5” sophomore guard Jimmy King (10.8 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 3.1 apg) and 6’ 6” sophomore forward Ray Jackson (4.1 rpg).
This was a close game as the Tar Heels led 42-36 at halftime. But, Michigan played them even in the second half and the game was close at the end.
With North Carolina leading 73-71, Michigan had the ball with eleven seconds left in the game. Chris Webber had the ball and was guarded by two North Carolina players and thought his team had a timeout remaining and called one. But they did not have it and a technical foul was called and Carolina went on to win 77-71.
Donald Williams led NCU with 25 points and got the game MVP while Eric Montrose had 16 points and George Lynch had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Chris Webber led Michigan with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocked shots while Jimmy King added 15 points and Jalen Rose had 12 while Juwan Howard added 7 rebounds.
That was the last game for the Fab Five as Webber went on to the NBA where he enjoyed a Hall of Fame career.
North Carolina was back in the title game in 2005 while Michigan returned in 2013.
Statistics for this article were from sports-reference.com and Youtube.com.
