U-M basketball fans will get to hear perspectives about the team’s past and its present at 6:30 pm Monday at Literati Bookstore, when sports writer Mike Rosenbaum will talk about his book University of Michigan Basketball, 1960-1989: From Cazzie Russell to the NCAA Title alongside past U-M players Tom Staton and Antoine Joubert, and current U-M basketball play-by-play radio personality Brian Boesch.

“I’m leading the event,” said Rosenbaum, who grew up in Oak Park, and graduated from U-M with a communications degree in 1980. “So I’ll probably go over a few stories that [Staton and Joubert] talked about for the book … and then we’ll probably have a discussion about this year’s team. Brian’s close to the team. He’s interviewed all the coaches, and he can give us some insight on what’s going on … and talk about what to expect with the new coach [Dusty May].”

Staton and Joubert are just two of the more than 40 people Rosenbaum interviewed for his book, which has been years in the making.

“It began about 2010,” Rosenbaum said. “I was working with another publisher and had some creative differences that kind of delayed things.”

One of the first key interviews Rosenbaum landed back then was Rudy Tomjanovich, who was, at that time, working as a scout for the Los Angeles Lakers. “I found him quickly, … and he did a really good interview,” said Rosenbaum, who noted that generally, everyone he reached out to seemed more than happy to share their memories. “Sometimes you have interviews … that are like pulling teeth. There was none of that.”

In fact, former U-M men’s basketball coach Johnny Orr expressed gratitude to Rosenbaum. “I think I interviewed him twice,” said Rosenbaum. “At the end, he said, ‘Thanks for helping me re-live all this—all the fun times.’”

One former U-M player Rosenbaum knew he had to talk to, but initially struggled to reach, was 1989 NCAA Championship star Glen Rice.

“[Former U-M coach] Bill Frieder helped me out,” said Rosenbaum, who’d already left an unanswered voicemail with Rice’s representation. “Frieder said, ‘I’ll get a hold of him.’ He got me (Rice’s) phone number, and I had a really good interview with Glen.”

Of course, being a longtime U-M basketball fan, Rosenbaum already knew about the general ups and downs of the program across the decades, so the fun of the project involved hearing about behind-the-scenes conversations and relationships.

“There’s one story in the book where Tim McCormick, who was a highly touted freshman coming to Michigan in 1980, I think—he’s all excited for his first game,” said Rosenbaum. “He was a Clarkston native, so he’s playing near home. But the star of the [U-M] team, Mike McGee—this is Tim McCormick’s telling of it—says to [Tim], ‘OK, you’re a freshman, I’m a senior, and I’m trying to set the Big Ten’s all-time scoring record. So don’t shoot the ball. Pass it to me. Next year, you can shoot.’”

Another story in Rosenbaum’s book was about Rice’s recruitment (or lack thereof).

“He was not really on Michigan’s radar,” Rosenbaum said. “They went after a number of other players, like three guys, and just missed out to other schools. Then they said, well, let’s turn to this guy, Glen Rice. It was partly because Rice wasn’t featured prominently on his high school team until he was a senior, but he was, like, Plan D. … And they ended up getting the best player of the bunch.”

But the tide-turner that made Michigan basketball relevant in the 1960s, after a long, mostly mediocre drought, was Cazzie Russell, whom Rosenbaum not only got to talk to but also got to watch play, thanks to video footage available at U-M’s Bentley Historical Library. 

“It was a lot of fun seeing the amazing variety of skills that he had, as far as—he was a great shooter from outside,” said Rosenbaum. “He had this flat shot. It would look odd until the ball just goes ‘swish’ through the hoop, then [you think], ‘Oh, OK. Now it looks pretty good.’ He handled the ball really well … but he also had a lot of strength, in terms of rebounding and boxing out and playing in the low post. So his variety of skills was just really fun to watch.”

Jenn McKee is a former staff arts reporter for The Ann Arbor News, where she primarily covered theater and film events, and also wrote general features and occasional articles on books and music.

Mike Rosenbaum, past U-M players Tom Staton and Antoine Joubert, and current U-M basketball play-by-play radio personality Brian Boesch discuss "University of Michigan Basketball, 1960-1989: From Cazzie Russell to the NCAA Title" on Monday, October 28, at 6:30 pm at Literati Bookstore, 124 East Washington Street, Ann Arbor.