New Michigan head coach Juwan Howard got a huge boost to his first team when German Franz Wagner committed and signed this summer, and it didn’t take long for Wagner to make an impact. The younger brother of former Wolverine Moritz Wagner, Franz has impressed everyone in every aspect through his first few months on campus.
Wagner was one of the better young players on Germany’s Alba Berlin team, but he was looking for a different experience for his next basketball challenge.
“Back home, I maybe had the best situation basketball-wise in Europe,” Wagner said. “I had great coaches, people who really cared about my development. But I just felt like life is about more than just playing ball all the time. That’s really why I came here.”
“I felt like it was the best combination of basketball and academics,” he said. ”I knew from my brother that he had a great experience here. If it was college, I knew — I assumed it was going to be Michigan.”
He also knew to expect a lot of questions about his brother, though he probably wasn’t prepared for so many. He marveled at the 20 or so reporters around his table at media day, noting that’s something he wouldn’t have seen back in Germany.
His brother, now in the NBA with the Washington Wizards, has helped with the transition. He even came to Ann Arbor to help him move in to his dorm at East Quad.
“All these little things that can be somewhat of a pain in the ass when you don’t have anybody,” Franz said with a smile. But with him, it just made things a lot easier.”
But he won’t try to be like him on the court, he added quickly. There are similarities to their games, of course, but while Moe was a big with guard skills, Franz is a wing all the way. Both were extremely talented the second they set foot on campus, but Franz seems to be well ahead of where his brother was at the same point in their careers.
It would be shocking, in fact, if he didn’t make an immediate impact and start from day one. Assistant coach Phil Martelli insisted the frosh wing would have been a McDonald's All-American had he attended one of the elite prep academies in the United States, for example.
“He’s a guy that you come to practice every day and you leave and you just scratch your head,” Martelli said. “It’s every day. I tell people, ‘you have to see this,’ and it’s subtle. It’s like, ‘how did he know to help defend that? How did he know to go with the right hand?’
“I don’t want to put a lot of pressure on him, but he’s Rain Man — he’s a Rain Man in basketball. He’s a savant.”
He’s also miles ahead of his brother in one respect in particular.
“I texted Moe after the first couple of practices; I was like, ‘this dude actually plays defense,’” assistant Saddi Washington said with a grin. “I don’t know what you called it those first couple of years.”
All of the younger Wagner’s skills will be on display when the Wolverines open their season Nov. 1 with an exhibition against Saginaw Valley State. He knows folks will make their comparisons, but he hopes they'll judge him on his own merit.
“People are going to compare us, but really, it just matters how I feel about things and how I do on the court,” he said. ”What he did, that’s in the past. Nobody can change that. I can’t change that. I can only impact and affect what’s in front of me and what’s happening right now. I think the best thing is to forget about everything else and just worry about that.”
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