Michael Finley Laid The Foundation For Wisconsin’s Modern Basketball Success

As he walked into the University of Wisconsin Field House for the first basketball practice of his freshman year, the last thing Michael Finley imagined was a lengthy NBA career that included two All-Star appearances and a championship, nor dld he even fathom the idea that someday, his jersey would hang from the rafters of the Badgers’ home arena.

In fact, even making the NCAA Tournament — something that the Badgers have done for 23 of the last 25 seasons — was a laughable suggestion. 

But all that changed a little more six months after Finley’s first day on the Wisconsin campus when head coach Steve Yoder, who recruited Finley out of Chicago’s Proviso East High School, after athletic director Pat Richter did not recommend extending Yoder’s contract. 

Richter was in the process of completely overhauling and modernizing a moribund athletic program. He’d jumpstarted Wisconsin’s football program by hiring Barry Alvarez as head coach in 1989 and was now looking to do the same with the men’s basketball program, which hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1947 and had posted a winning record in Big Ten play just five times during that stretch. 

He needed to hit a home run, and did just that by hiring 36-year-old Stu Jackson.

“It was perfect,” Finley said Sunday morning, before becoming the third player in program history to have his number retired. “Coach Yoder and Coach Ray McCallum recruited me and when that change comes, you don’t know what to respect but Coach Jackson was perfect for me as a basketball player, he was perfect for me as a man.”

The duo would spend just two seasons together before Jackson returned to the NBA but those two seasons would change the trajectory of Finley’s career and the Wisconsin program.

Finley led the team in scoring (22.1 points per game) and rebounds (5.8) while finishing second to teammate and close friend Tracey Webster with 3.1 assists his sophomore season as the Badgers improved to 7-11 in the Big Ten and finished 14-14 overall to earn a berth in the National Invitation Tournament.

Wisconsin took another massive step forward a year later, opening the season with 11 consecutive victories and were 12-1 after an upset of No. 9 Purdue. A four-game losing streak to close out February derailed any hopes of a Big Ten title but despite dropping six of their last eight games for an 8-10 conference record, the Badgers finished 17-10 overall heard their name called on Selection Sunday for the first time in 47 years.

“When you go to college, no matter where you go, you expect to make it to the tournament every year,” Finley said. “That’s not always a reality so for us to make it (in 1994) makes me proud.”

Behind 22 points from Finely, the ninth-seeded Badgers knocked off eighth-seeded Cincinnati, 80-72, in the first round. In the second round, Finley sank 5 of 10 3-pointers and connected on 13 of 14 free throw attempts to finish with 36 points in a 109-96 loss to top-seeded Missouri. 

While Jackson joined the expansion Vancouver Grizzlies of the NBA, Finley returned for his senior season under Stan Van Gundy and finished third in the league with 20.5 points per game. The Badgers missed the NCAA Tournament after slipping to 13-14 (7-11 Big Ten) but Finley became the first Wisconsin player to get selected in the first round of the NBA Draft since Wes Matthews in 1980 when he went to the Phoenix Suns with the 21st overall pick.

He went on to play 15 seasons for the Suns, Mavericks, Spurs and Celtics, earning two All-Star berths in 2000 and ’01 and then winning a title in 2007 with San Antonio but those accomplishments pale in comparison to the pride Finely takes in what he, his former coaches and teammates started building at Wisconsin all those years ago.

“Knowing that I was part of one of the original teams to break that barrier of getting back to the NCAA Tournament and making a consistent thing, an annual thing, It gives me great pride to know that me and my teammates were part of that ground-breaking experience,” Finley said.