It's Championship Monday, and Michigan is a few hours away from taking on Louisville for the biggest prize in college sports.
Is the biggest buzz in Atlanta about Trey Burke vs. Russ Smith? Rick Pitino vs. John Beilein?
Nope. It's about a 20-year-old battle between Chris Webber, his past and the Wolverines.
Jalen Rose took to the airwaves and the internet in the days and hours leading up to the game, making a public appeal for Webber to end his estrangement with the University of Michigan and show up at the Georgia Dome for a Fab Five reunion. Rose will be there with Jimmy King and Ray Jackson, while Juwan Howard is going to try to get a day off from his never-ending NBA career to join the group.
But Webber, who lives in Atlanta, is expected to skip the festivities, just like he passed on the recent Fab Five documentary, and has shown little interest in breaking down the wall that exists between himself and the adminstration in Ann Arbor.
Rose said Sunday that he thinks much of the problem stems from Webber's ill-fated attempt to call a timeout at the end of the 1993 championship game against North Carolina -- a move that sealed Michigan's defeat. He feels that, since that night, Webber wanted to start over with a pro career and now a broadcasting job, and going to Atlanta would just bring back painful memories.
There's some merit to that. There were fans in the Georgia Dome on Saturday with signs mocking Webber's blunder, and it can't have helped matters when the Wolverines finished the game without any timeouts, leading to the inevitable references to the 1993 championship game.
It's silly to pretend that the timeout is the biggest factor at play, though. Michigan had to vacate its Final Four run in 1992 and its entire 1992-93 season because of Webber's involvement in the Ed Martin scandal. Because of Webber, the Final Four banners are hidden away in a dark room at the campus library and he isn't allowed any official contact with the program.
Some of those restrictions end this summer, but Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman has made it clear that she doesn't think the banners should ever go back up, and the consensus is that Webber won't be allowed back without an apology that he isn't interested in giving.
There's no rule against Webber buying a ticket for tonight's game, and he would certainly be allowed to sit with the other members of the Fab Five. The group would be guaranteed plenty of TV time, and it would be an exciting moment for the members of the current team, who know how much Webber, Rose, Howard, King and Jackson did for the program.
But it will also put Webber back into a spotlight that he's wanted to avoid for two decades. It will mean more attention on the timeout, and worse yet, more attention on the Martin scandal.
If Webber refuses to talk on camera, he'll look petulant. If he talks, he's likely to put even more distance between himself and the Michigan administration.
It would be fun to see the Fab Five together again, especially as a new group of Wolverines tries to win the school's first NCAA tournament title since 1989.
For Chris Webber, however, there are a lot of good reasons to stay home and watch on television.
