I’m not a huge fan of retiring numbers for college in any event - their careers are too short. I think retiring the “jersey” (raising a banner to honor the player while keeping the number in circulation) is sufficient.
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Seems to me Iowa failing to honor Marble fits with a larger pattern within the Iowa athletic department. I’m shocked Gary Barta still has a job at this point.
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I think the answer lies with Maverick Morgan
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Except #25 at Michigan, right? 
Mostly I agree. Did not support it for Burke. It’s another level if you won two rings in your time here, or if you came back as coach and had success.
But I also think if you’re gonna retire a number, do it later, so you can bring the guy back and do memory-lane stuff. I got pretty misty-eyed at Dennis Rodman’s retirement ceremony at the Palace 5 or so years back, and so did my brother. Our wives still make fun of us, but the video and the having the Bad Boys all come out at halftime – it was just a wonderful, wonderful night of reminiscing. So glad we were there. That stuff, done well, really matters.
(In the case of Juwan specifically, I hope this is done strategically to maximize feelings, emotions, and years before Juwan goes up to the big leagues. If Jett’s not a four-year player, maybe on Jace’s senior day you also hoist that #25 up there.)
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I’m completely behind raising a banner to Juwan, but I’d keep #25 in circulation.
I don’t want the Michigan team of 2060 to have to choose numbers like 78, 86 and 62 because all the good ones are out of circulation.
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Well that and for not following CDC guidelines to start with, so he would not have had to turn lemons into lemonade in the first place – he brought that on himself. But, credit for where it’s due – they did most of want I wanted and they got the result we all wanted, and handling the schedule is a permanent and significant mark in the pro column for Warde. though slightly different than the OSU approach in which both Smith and Day spoke up. They had Juwan and Livers set expectations in the press, and presumably Warde got to play nice guy working on behalf of his coaches and players.
It’ll be interesting to see how time treats Illinois’ AD, for the small group of non-Illini who will remember the episode in years to come.
UM went pretty heavy on honoring jerseys near the start of the Amaker era. I was there for Hubbard, RudyT, Glen, and Bill Buntin. Glen was the only person I knew of as an actual player (I knew of Rudy as a coach).
I like waiting a decade or so, but not so much that half of the fanbase doesn’t know who the guys are.
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Fair enough – that’s a legit concern and I am a purist in terms of numbers – serious dislike of current trends and would become a completely unreasonable person if college followed the NBA in allowing digits from 6 to 9.
25 is my favorite number, actually, and there’s definitely a model to follow there, a la #1 and WRs. I like to see it given only to upperclassmen who earned it as frosh/sophs. Juwan’s probably not likely to cultivate the same treatment of his own number, but at this point I’d like to see #3 earned. You shouldn’t be able to wear it as a freshman.
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Good point. There’s a sweet spot in the middle. Most of the people in the crowd that night should be able to remember the good times.
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I hate stuff like this. It was dumb when Braylon made a big deal out of it, and it’d be plain silly to do it with a basketball number. Like is any recruit really thinking to themselves “man I want to earn the right to wear Trey Burke’s number!” Can pretty much only pull that off with MJ at UNC.
For the most part, players like to have the same number over their career. Number switches are relatively rare. Making 3 have to be earned would just guarantee no one wears it
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I didn’t think it was dumb – #1 is a meaningful part of the football program’s tradition and lore for many people. I also think that within a program there are really meaningful numbers that evoke memories and suggest a standard, which is why some are retired in the first place anyways. Braylon himself is a bit of a character, but that’s another matter.
In a minor way – because all of this is aesthetics and that’s by definition a matter of opinion – but I wish Livers had not abandoned #4. That’s an important number in Michigan basketball history. I was so happy when McGary chose it, even if I have very complicated feelings about Webber himself.
In college, the numbers are even more restricted. The digits 6-9 can’t appear on a jersey. So there are the allowed numbers:
The following numbers are legal: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 00, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55. Team rosters can include 0 or 00, but not both.
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This has more to do with announcing Garza having his number retired 2 minutes after he played his final regular season game at Iowa. This wasn’t something that just came up for Iowa it was probably already decided long ago. Marble last played for Iowa over 30 years ago and he is most definitely deserving of having his number retired. Retiring numbers right away loses a lot of it’s luster imo.
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I’m legitimately comforted to know that you can have a zero or a double zero but not both. Otherwise you know it would happen and be stupid.
For the record, only double zero is appropriate for centers. Fact.
It’s on you if you don’t know who Bill Buntin and Phil Hubbard are.
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Both Poole and Livers wore #2 in high school, so I don’t think Isaiah switched numbers on a whim. I don’t know the dynamics of how Poole ended up with #2 at Michigan (maybe he got first dibs since he committed about 10 months earlier), but clearly Livers wanted to have that number and claimed it once Jordan left for the NBA.
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Not sure whether you’re talking to me today, or talking to the 21-23 year old version of me from that timeframe the ceremonies were held. (or if there was any sarcasm in that statement)
Bottom line, my first true sports memory was the '89 championship game, and the crux of my sports fandom relied on the 90’s teams. I just like the idea of honoring the players while the students and a majority of the fanbase in attendance also watched the players play (either on TV or in person). That was 100% not the case for Hubbard and Buntin, though they deserved to be honored obviously.
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I was today years old when I realized that was a restriction for the NCAA. Wow. Found an article about it listed below. As someone who has kept score and stats for youth basketball games I understand the confusion…but the ref has a voice too and doesn’t require hand signals alone to relay the information. Seems archaic to me. Especially since the difference between 1-5 and 5-1 isn’t immediately clear when a refs signals it to you.
(Additionally, the Chinese have a widely accepted system for how they can count to ten using one hand with different symbols for each number - seems pretty simple for refs to adopt if we absolutely insist on hand signals.)
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Thanks. That certainly helps to alleviate my suffering. 
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I’d rather allow some Chinese characters than allowing 6 thru 9.
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