The Fabulous Five: Stepping Toward NBA : College basketball: With professional opportunities awaiting, Michigan’s prized group may vanish from scene as quickly as it appeared.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Geez, that was quick. What was it, last March, that we were just discovering Michigan’s Fab Five freshmen? Word is by next spring we’ll be remembering them fondly, like Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman or something. Gone. Freshmen, seniors, out. They aren’t playing a sophomore season, they’re doing a Farewell Tour. And you thought Adm. James Stockdale was mercurial.

Such is college sport for the best of them. It’s not so much a segment of life as a way station, where the likes of Chris Webber, a 6-foot-10, 255-pound power forward who is the most talented of the Michigan sophs, can tinker with his immense talents for a season or two before graduating to his rightful place in the NBA. Where Jalen Rose, a 6-8 point guard who can play five positions, can play five positions.

“If Chris goes this year, if Jalen goes this year,” said Michigan coach Steve Fisher, “we have to feel blessed that we’ve had them for two years. That’s the way we have to feel about it.”

(All those wishing to scream about the hypocrisy of college athletics, please do so now.)

They have been, in every sense of the word, an evolution in college basketball, have Michigan’s former Fab Five, now nicknameless sophomores ranked No. 1 in the preseason polls. Webber, Rose, 6-10 Juwan Howard, 6-6 Ray Jackson and 6-5 Jimmy King enrolled at Michigan together a year ago, the best recruiting class ever. By the 19th game of the season, they were all starting, and by the very last game, they were playing Duke for the national championship. (And losing by 20 points, also a factor in the mix.)

Never had such a talented group of high school players assembled in one place. They took on an arrogance and a style of their own, petterned after the UNLV mini-dynasty of the late ‘80s: big-time strutting, trash talk, baggy shorts, et al. “Confidence,” said Michigan senior James Voskuil, “is a big part of their game. They have a load of confidence.” They have pointed themselves toward a national championship this year, because this year almost certainly will be the last year.

“You’ve got to play for today,” Webber said. “Never say next year, because next year might not come.”

Last year the experiment was to see if five such widely recruited athletes could function together, or if the upperclassmen they inevitably replaced would tolerate it. With minor glitches, it worked.

Now: Can five sophomores do the same thing and win one more game?

There is a new set of variables at work. For one, Webber is almost surely gone after this season. He is a physical talent along the lines of Karl Malone, except with quickness.

“You’re talking about a definite (NBA) all-star,” said Nets coach Chuck Daly. “Great demeanor, great attitude, and every physical quality you need ... he can run, he can jump, he can shoot.”

For another, Rose could leave, too, although his ascension is somewhat less guaranteed than Webber’s.

For yet another, Howard, King and Jackson are all good, solid college players who will need, to varying degrees, much improvement to reach the NBA. They also will need more exposure and more shots, which will be more of a factor as they get further into their careers. In short, the team could need more basketballs by February. The rumor is that Howard’s cronies already are egging him to score more (to increase his NBA value), though he denies it.

“I believe the NBA wants players who win,” he said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win.”

Another potential plotline was quashed last week when the NCAA declined to suspend Webber, Rose and senior Eric Riley for borderline violations committed at camps last summer.

Webber’s circumstance is clearly the most dramatic. He is one of those athletes for whom college sport is nothing but a minor league. From the moment he began playing at Michigan, it was plain he someday would be an NBA star. Now he must decide: When? And of what value is this (probably) final season in college?

He knows what riches lie in his future and he thinks about them. “How can you help but think about it?” he said after a recent practice. “When you don’t have a lot of money and you can’t pay all your bills and you can’t have everything you want and sometimes you don’t even have everything you need ... of course you think about it.

“I saw who got picked last year,” he said. “I would have been a lottery pick then. I was down at Duke with Grant (Hill) and Bobby (Hurley) when Christian (Laettner) got drafted and was on TV. We were all making comments about the lifestyle in the NBA and saying, ‘Look at him up there ...’ I think all that makes me want to work harder this year.”

Rose is the skinheaded, lefthanded guard whose father is former Providence star Jimmy Walker (Rose still hasn’t heard from him in years, even after last year’s very visible Final Four, during which Walker’s name was invoked across the country.”That’s life,” he said. “Just have to roll with it.”). And Rose is another matter.

He is likely to play in the NBA, though he would likely benefit from more time in college. Rose said he has made no plans yet to explore his future.

“We got the finals last year,” Rose said, “but as I recall, we didn’t win any championships.”

Howard said, “It’s my intention to complete my four years at Michigan,” which has a distinctly political feel to it. Jackson and King haven’t so much as mentioned leaving early and both would be advised not to. But Fisher already is recruiting in behind them.

So there is a ladder of agendas at work here, which creates an odd, freewheeling dynamic for the team that is both baffling and remarkable.

Fisher, the same man who was handed Bill Frieder’s 1989 Wolverines and steered that slippery and talented lot to the national title, is charged with stewarding this bunch. “But he lets the leaders on the team lead,” said Webber, an evaluation that speaks volumes. When Webber and Rose talk about guidance, they mention “Coach Watson,” who would be assistant coach Perry Watson, the former Detroit Southwestern High coach who came to Michigan a year ago, bringing the phrase “package deal” to many lips.

But it is a group that never seems to cross the line. Fisher outlines a very structured, disciplined practice and they get through it all together every day without mutiny. Their style sometimes engenders laughter. Cute kids. Big shorts, all that talking. Really cute. Kind of goofy, too. The crush of media at last year’s Final Four dined on Fab Five minutiae for four days. “We were a novelty act,” Fisher said.

They are headed in different directions, all five of them, sooner than later. They have no nickname this year, and they aren’t looking for one. Perhaps only to turn laughter into admiration, novelty into legacy.