LOOK: Is Juwan Howard Bringing Back A Classic Fab Five Look?

Michigan’s famed Fab Five ushered in the era of swag to the basketball world. In a sport where most had a look similar to John Stockton - short shorts, white socks, white shoes - the Fab Five burst onto the scene and forever changed the basketball culture.

The trademark baggy shorts with the black socks/black shoes combo was part of the Fab Five announcing that they were going to do things their way and on their own terms. The culture shift led to backlash that was well documented, particularly from within the Michigan fan base itself. Nevertheless, the Fab Five remained true to who they were and the trend they created in the early 90’s is still very much in style today.

Not only was the Fab Five dominant on the basketball court, they were also culture icons.

On Friday, the Michigan Basketball twitter account tweeted out an image of the black shoes/black socks combo - giving former Fab Five member Jalen Rose a shoutout in the process. This led many to speculate that Big Ten coach of the year Juwan Howard was set to revive the classic look that his squad introduced nearly three decades ago.

Uh oh @JalenRose ... lookie what we got going on here! 👀🔥#GoBlue 〽️🏀#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/2OUzwh20Gd
— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) March 19, 2021

If Howard is trying to instill a bit of that Fab Five magic into this year’s team, it’s a very good time to do it. The Wolverines begin tournament play this afternoon as they take on Texas Southern at 3:00 pm EST on CBS. The No. 1 seed Wolverines were expected to make a deep run into the tournament, but an injury to veteran forward Isaiah Livers has caused some to question just how far Michigan can go without him.

As for the Big Ten conference itself, it’s been a rough start to tournament play so far. No. 11 Michigan State was bounced in a first-four game on Thursday as they fell to No. 11 UCLA in overtime. The No. 1 seed Ohio State Buckeyes may have busted every bracket in existence on Friday, falling to No. 15. Oral Roberts in a shocking upset - losing by a score of 75-72 in overtime. The No. 4 Purdue Boilermakers were also a casualty of the first-round, losing to No. 13 North Texas in overtime by a score of 78-69.

On the plus side, both No. 1 Illinois and No. 10 Rutgers took care of business on Friday - advancing to the second round of tournament play.