By W.G, Ramirez
The Sporting Tribune
The John R. Wooden Award will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this season. Leading up to the award ceremony on April 10, 2026, The Sporting Tribune in partnership with the Wooden Award and the Los Angeles Athletic Club will highlight past winners of the Wooden Award and the Legends of Coaching Award.
Former college basketball coach Steve Fisher exuded greatness, but it never had to do with flash innovation or overwhelming star power. With Fisher, it’s always been about winning big, winning everywhere, and doing it his way.
Fisher, the winner of the 2015 Wooden Award, has a résumé that stacks up with almost anyone in college basketball history.
Fisher, who has been to three Final Fours, won a national championship in one of the most incredible stories in college basketball history.
It was 1989, when, during the final week of the regular season, then-coach Bill Frieder agreed to take the coaching job at Arizona State at the start of the following season. Frieder intended to coach Michigan through the end of the 1989 NCAA Tournament. But when he told athletic director Bo Schembechler of his intentions, Frieder was ordered to leave immediately and Fisher was named interim coach.
Fisher was never expected to retain the position after the Big Dance, but he led the Wolverines to an improbable NCAA championship that season and remained coach at Michigan through the 1997 campaign.
After a couple of years as an assistant with the Sacramento Kings in the NBA, he took over the San Diego State program.
Riddled with the reputation of being “the guy who won with other people’s players,” Fisher proved otherwise at San Diego State, transitioning the Aztecs from a regional afterthought into a national power.
San Diego State became a consistent NCAA tournament participant. The Aztecs had a regular Top 25 presence, they enjoyed multiple stops in the Sweet 16s and had deep postseason runs.
San Diego State, under Fisher, sustained excellence, and it was nowhere near a fluke.
Fisher’s teams always had a clear identity, too, laced with toughness, unselfishness, a defense-first mindset and ones that were physically and mentally resilient.
To Fisher’s credit, players bought into their roles, accepted accountability and trusted the system. That’s why his teams overachieved relative to recruiting rankings.
Dating back to his days at Michigan, he didn’t just recruit stars, he made them better. To wit:
Glen Rice became a national icon at Michigan.
Jalen Rose and the Fab Five matured into winners.
Kawhi Leonard transformed from a raw athlete to a future Finals MVP under Fisher’s guidance.
His track record with pros speaks volumes.
And part of his coaching persona was a demeanor that stood out because he stayed calm under chaos.
Fisher was always steady during tournament pressure; he never panicked and was excellent at in-game adjustments, he was trusted by his players in late-game moments, and it was his calm that translated directly to March success.
Fisher may not dominate highlight reels or coaching debates, but his résumé screams greatness due to his program-building skills, his player development, his consistent winning across eras and schools, and that miraculous run in 1989 with the Fab Five.
Steve Fisher was the kind of coach whose impact gets clearer the longer anyone studies the game, and that’s usually how someone builds an elite status.