Celebrate Black History Month: Michael Finley
February 19, 2009 | General News
In honor of Black History month, the University of Wisconsin athletic department will celebrate the stories of 28 former African-American student-athletes or coaches, one for each day in the month of February. ( see table updated daily )
The UW athletic program launched its ' Celebrate UW's Black History ' section on UWBadgers.com in 2003. It has been updated every year with new information and multimedia offerings and is one of the finest college resources for African-American athletics history in the nation.
Today we feature Michael Finley ...
It is no coincidence that the Wisconsin men's basketball program's first NCAA tournament appearance in 47 years occurred when Michael Finley was playing some of the best ball of his college career.
Finley, a native of Maywood, Ill., starred for the Badgers from 1991-95. He started 112 of 115 games during his career and left Wisconsin as the school's career scoring leader and No. 12 point-producer in Big Ten history. He is still the only player in UW history to score 500 points in three different seasons, as well as average better than 20 points per game in three different seasons. He was a three-time Associated Press honorable mention All-America selection and a two-time first-team All-Big Ten choice.
Finley teamed with point guard Tracy Webster and center Rashard Griffith to help lead the Badgers to the 1994 NCAA tournament, the school's first appearance in the 'Big Dance' since 1947.
Finley was selected by Phoenix in the first round (21st overall) of the 1995 NBA Draft. He was inducted into the UW Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004 and won an NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs in 2007.
