9202150302 DETROIT FREE PRESS 921202 Wednesday, December 02, 1992 METRO FINAL

SPT

1F MITCH ALBOM SEE ALSO METRO FINAL CHASER EDITION, Page 1F Copyright (c) 1992, Detroit Free Press SECOND TIME AROUND, AND THE THRILL IS GONE HOUSTON -- They came out like a rock group on opening night of their reunion tour. Chris Webber was first man called. To a roar of applause he sauntered to mid-court, looking mean, ready to roll. Next was Ray Jackson, who slapped his arms around Webber as if they hadn't seen each other in years. "ALL RIGHT!" Ray hollered over the din of the crowd. Juwan Howard followed, the man in the middle, trotting to center stage, greeted with another tight hug and more screams of encouragement. Then Jalen Rose, who took the cake, the class clown, strutting out with his palms bent backward, Egyptian style, nodding and almost singing, "Uh-huh, uh-huh." He cracked them all up. Then bent over in laughter. By the time Jimmy King was introduced, they were back in the mood, where they left off last year, the Shock The World Unit. The others joined them, Eric Riley, Rob Pelinka, James Voskuil, etc., and they huddled up on the Summit floor in the great big state of Texas, the guys, the team, with fingers raised. They began a steady dance back and forth, group hug, Michigan Wolverines, all together, rockin' in rhythm. It was nice. It was fun. And then the season began. So much for the fun part. It'll be a long time before the Wolverines enjoy that sort of innocence again. What happened Tuesday against the Rice Owls is the kind of thing that is going to happen night after night, game after game, week after week during this sophomore installment of the Fabulous Program. From here on in, the Wolverines are not a bunch of basketball players, they are a measuring stick, a chip on the bully's shoulder, something other teams use to judge themselves, to earn their bragging rights, to face in battle then go home and tell war stories to their friends. "You should have seen me. I shot one of them down. They weren't so tough." Welcome to Great Expectations, Part II. No fun to be the hunted You could see the pattern Tuesday in this, the Wolverines' first regular-season game since they lost in the national championship game to Duke last April. Rice began the game subdued, in respectful awe, as befits a team that is better known for its graduation rate than its field goal percentage. But as the minutes passed, as the Wolverines made a sloppy pass here, a bad shot there, suddenly, the opponents grew in stature. And in courage. They stopped defending. They began to attack. And soon, despite the collection of highlight moves by the Wolverines -- Webber blocking a shot, catching it, and making a behind-the-back pass, or Rose racing down the lane, floating in mid-air and dropping in a jump shot as soft as a Nerf ball -- the Owls were able to get easy, overlooked baskets, to grab funny rebounds, to stay within pace. A few three-pointers, some good board work, an awakened crowd, and next thing you know, the Wolverines are leaving the court at halftime trailing, 31-30, and some college kid wearing a grass skirt is waving a stick and pointing to his chest. Two words are painted there: "FAB WHAT?" And then the second half, when it gets no better, after somewhere in the locker room, a Rice coach said, "We can beat these guys, just stay focused," and the Owls, focused on an upset -- which is much easier to do than to focus on not losing -- begin to extend their lead. They hit a three-pointer. Another three-pointer. On a telling exchange, the Owls hit a three-pointer that ignites the crowd, and Rose takes the inbounds pass and quickly heaves it to try to outshine that play with an alley-oop to Webber. He heaves it without much thought, as if it is his birthright to make that pass, and Webber's to catch it. But the ball has no such memory, it is thrown poorly, it goes nowhere near Webber and it is turned over. And slowly, in the annoyed and aggravated expressions of the Wolverines, you see a familiar look in sports. It is the look of the hunted. It is no fun. No fun at all. Remember the hug at the start But this is the way it will be for Michigan. This is the way it will have to be. The players are magnificently talented, but they are improvisers, and some nights, the music is going to sound better than others. Some nights it may not sound good at all. So they will win games, blowing teams out, and they will win games, coming from behind -- as they did, finally, Tuesday night -- and they will lose some games, too, but they won't believe they lost them, they will believe they gave them away, or they were robbed, or they didn't care anyhow. Losing will not enter their minds, but it may enter the record books. And it won't matter, if they win at the end, and it will be the only thing that matters if they don't. Such is the way the second time around. You are only young once. You are only on your first date once. There will be better nights for the Wolverines this season, and there may be worse. But it will be nice to remember that picture at the start of Tuesday's game, that group hug and dance, because that may be the last time, until some Monday night in April, that they feel like kids again. Mitch Albom will sign copies of his new book Live Albom III Thursday night, 7:30 at Jocundry's bookstore in East Lansing.