Every two years, the Michigan basketball family comes together for a special event, one that does not get a ton of publicity by design and one that is not officially associated with the university.

It is put together by former players and managers to give the opportunity to former players, managers, and coaches, a chance to reconnect, reminisce, check it on the current team, all of that.

It's also a conduit to raise money for ALS, of course, important to the Michigan basketball

family as coach Steve Fisher's son, Mark, has been battling that disease for years.

The most recent addition of this event came earlier this month, and our guest here on this episode

to defend the block, Rudy Tom Janovich, earned one of three awards given out at every event,

fittingly, the Stephen Mark Fisher Lifetime Achievement Award.

Now, over the years, we have talked here on this podcast about how unique a player

like Will Cheddar is these days in college basketball,

spending five seasons with one program. Rudy Tomjanovich did not just stay at one school,

his entire playing career, of course, the norm back then, but his entire NBA career as an all-star

player that as an NBA champion head coach, took place with the Houston

Rockets. Rudy T. is integral to the history of Michigan and then of the Rockets. The coolest part

of my exchange with Tom Jonovich came after the interviews. There were two instances. First,

at his speech, the night of the event, when he accepted the aforementioned Lifetime Achievement Award,

he spent some time talking about just how enthusiastic he is about the current status of the program.

The current head coach, Dusty May, recalled after the fact that the next day, Rudy T.

reiterated in a one-on-one conversation, just how excited he was for the team after watching

a practice. The other really cool observation came shortly after the interview I'm about to share.

As Rudy headed toward his car, he walked in the hallway near the Wolverines locker room at Chrysler

Center. Now, throughout that hallway, there are nods to the players who made their mark in Ann Arbor. There is a wall of each

NBA team in which former Wolverines played there. There's also a spot for each of the honored

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