ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Although saddened and angered by the scandal surrounding the Wolverines' program, former Michigan coach Steve Fisher again denied knowing anything about payments made to his ex-players by a booster.

Michigan imposed stiff sanctions on its basketball program Thursday, banning it from postseason play in 2003 and forfeiting victories from six seasons, including the 1992 and 1993 Final Fours after an investigation revealed that retired auto worker Ed Martin paid a total of $616,000 to Chris Webber and three other players during the 1990s.

Fisher, now the coach at San Diego State, issued a statement Friday, his first public comments about the scandal since the punishment was handed down.

"I want to emphatically state once again that I had no knowledge of, or any involvement in, the exchange of money between any of our players and Ed Martin,'' Fisher said. "I am saddened, disappointed and angered by the events that have hurt so many people.''

Meanwhile, there was disappointment and optimism among Michigan's current players, who will pay the steepest price for the program's mistakes. Even if the Wolverines improve enough following last season's 11-18 record, the sanctions bar them from participating in the NCAA tournament or the NIT next March.

"Everything happens for a reason, my mom told me,'' senior LaVell Blanchard said. "You don't know what it is until you get older. Who knows? This might be a positive thing for everyone in this program.''

Blanchard went to high school in Ann Arbor and signed with Michigan with dreams of making it to the Final Four. Now he'll never get the chance.

"Things don't always happen the way you want to happen all the time,'' he said. "Through all the hard times, you have to learn from it, and it'll make you a stronger person.''

There was also the prospect that the punishment might extend beyond this season. Even with the school's pre-emptive action, the NCAA could levy harsher sanctions.

"I hope this is it,'' junior guard Avery Queen said. "We had nothing to do with what was going on. Enough is enough. It's like when I was a little kid. I wouldn't do anything, and my sister did, but I'd get punished. But that's life, I guess.''

Fisher was hired as interim coach at Michigan when Bill Frieder left for Arizona State just before the 1989 NCAA tournament. The Wolverines won the national title, led by Glen Rice.

Fisher stayed on as coach and guided the sensational "Fab Five'' teams, anchored by Chris Webber, Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose. The Wolverines made it to the NCAA title games in 1992 and 1993, but Fisher was fired in October 1997 amid accusations that Martin had lavished money and gifts on players.

"I'm very hurt and disappointed for our fans, for the university, for our families, for all the players, for college basketball,'' Rose, who plays for the Chicago Bulls, said Friday night. "Because the reality of it is, you can try to erase it from the history books or pull it from the rafters, but you can't erase the most famous college team from the minds of people.''

Martin pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to launder money.

Fisher coached all of the players implicated in the investigation that led to Thursday's punishment: Webber, Robert Traylor, Maurice Taylor and Louis Bullock.

Blanchard said he doesn't resent any of those players, even though their names have been officially expunged from the pages of Michigan basketball history. Blanchard called them "great people.''

"You can't take anything away from them,'' he said.

Blanchard said he had no regrets about his college choice.

"I'm a Michigan man. I've been here my whole life,'' he said. "You can't run away from your home. All I can do is smile, because even though this may be a hard time, I think back at the tradition, the fun I've had in this program, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.''