Michigan Wolverines Basketball: Several Standing Out in Practice

Michigan head coach Juwan Howard’s second U-M team still doesn’t have a schedule, but the Wolverines have been prepping hard for the day the opener finally comes. Several on the roster are impressing their teammates, but there’s buzz about one player in particular.

Sophomore wing Franz Wagner finished last year on a tear and ended up as the Wolverines’ second-leading scorer. Now approaching 6-10 (but officially still 6-9), Wagner has become a guy Howard can run the offense through and is wowing everyone after a productive summer of improvement.

Senior forward Isaiah Livers, too, is rounding back into game shape and should be a force.

“I think the ceiling for us is one of the highest in the country, for sure,” freshman big man Hunter Dickinson said this week. “I look at the two studs in Franz and Isaiah — those guys are around for a couple plays in practice where I’m just on the other end saying, ‘dang! I don’t know how he just made that shot or move’ It definitely made me in awe.”

Especially Wagner, he continued.

“I feel like every time he drives, he always makes it somehow,” Dickinson said. “He’s great at those little hook shots and lay-ups, stuff like that. I guess that’s his foreign background, but he’s really good at that.”

At point guard, fifth-year senior Mike Smith has made an impression as a shooter. Some have said he’s flirting with Duncan Robinson territory in shooting drills and has been playing on and off the ball.

Senior Eli Brooks, though, has been outstanding in the same role, per observers, and will be tough to keep off the floor.

“Eli is a great guy,” Smith said. “He plays extremely hard. We guard each other almost every day and he makes me better as a player and person, for sure a better player. Guarded everybody in the Big Ten, and everybody on the list of people he’s the hardest person to score on. For me to have that in practice every day, making me a better player … we’re trying to figure out how each other play together.”

If that happens, he’ll be ready.

“It’s going well. I think there’s chemistry and confidence in me and him,” he said.

Overall, Howard’s second squad is rounding into form.

“Just really good,” Dickinson said. “Our depth is something not a lot of people talk about. We’re easily 10 deep. The amount of talent that we have on the first and second team is really good. The second team is always pushing the first team … or the two teams that start out are always pushing each other.

“I just think we have lot of great talent at all positions. Eli, Mike, all the good wings — three really good wings. There’s a lot of talent all spread around.”

NOTES

• Freshman combo guard Zeb Jackson will have a role this year, Smith said.

“Zeb is really good. He has a 6-3 frame, maybe 6-4, really athletic, shifty; so shifty it’s crazy,” Smith said. “You would expect me to be shifty because I’m so small, but he’s really shifty, can shoot the ball, really athletic, can guard. He’s going to help the team this year, for sure, next year taking that role. He’s a big leader.

“The sky is the limit for him if he continues to work, buy in and understand, does everything the coaches are telling him. He’s a really good player and a really good kid.”

• Dickinson said he and his frosh teammates, Jackson, Jace Howard and Terrance Williams, are anxious to make their impression as Howard’s first true class.

“We’re aware we’re Juwan’s kind of first children, so to say; his first project,” he said. “We’ve talked about it. Of course, we would like to have five so we can be the next Fab Five.”

They’ll have to settle for being a fab four, he quipped.

“The other three are guys I’m going to be friends with for the rest of my life,” he said. “They’re just so fun to hang around, especially Terrance. I’ve known him forever. We have that bond.

“They have been great, just hanging around them every day in the living room of our apartment, especially Sunday [watching football and talking].”

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