College Basketball: The Fab Five

In college basketball, alley oops, fancy no look passes, and trash talking, are just some of the things we are now accustomed to today. Before 1991 though, it was all about making the simple plays just to get the ball in the hoop. Before the 90's all players would wear long white socks and short shorts, but now baggy shorts that go to your knees and black socks are in style around the world. What caused these changes to take place? It was a group of college basketball kids called the Fab Five at the University of Michigan. These five phenomenal players brought their own "swag" or style to the court and didn't care how people viewed them. At Michigan, the Fab Five represented a cultural phenomenon that impacted the country in a permanent and
Before college they were all american superstars being hunted down by top tier schools. They were promising before they came to college, but when they arrived and the group formed the whole thing changed. Never before did a group of five freshmen start, let alone play all together. "The Fab Five provided a player-powered revolution, the first of its kind in college hoops. Freshmen weren't allowed to play during John Wooden's dynasty days at UCLA. Dean Smith didn't let the North Carolina sports information department publicize freshmen. John Thompson didn't let the media talk to his freshmen during their first semester on campus".(Adande) Nowadays if you saw five freshmen on the court you wouldn't blink an eye. Many teams like Kentucky often have one and done freshmen on the court, but before the Fab Five that didn't happen as said before, most freshmen didn't even play. "They were ranked No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press poll, and they carried a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. At the Final Four in New Orleans, they were so big that the surging crowds at their hotel delayed their arrival for the Sunday news conference before the championship
The baggy shorts, black socks, and shaved heads were the common look of the Fab Five. The way they looked changed the course of style. It seems as if the modernized the old look adding in new components. "I think people saw us that way," says Rose. "We were the bad guys." Some of that, he admits, came from their style: trash-talking, baggy shorts, black socks, a lot of play ground swagger". They felt comfortable in this look because that is how they grew up. Before for the Fab Five there were players like John Stockton with the short shorts, but after the Fab Five it was like everyone was wearing what they were