Michigan Basketball: 5 Bold predictions for Wolverines 2019-20 season
Franz Wagner will win Big Ten Freshman of the Year
Franz Wagner will be the first player from Michigan to win the Big Ten Freshman of the year since…last year when Ignas Brazdeikis was the recipient.
When you start to break it down, it’s not that bold of a prediction, but on the surface, it seems farfetched. Iggy wasn’t the best basketball player in the country when he left Canada for the States; he wasn’t even in the top 30, according to 247 sports.
The rankings didn’t stop him. What Iggy produced was 15 points and five rebounds per game. Is that really too outlandish for the German sensation, Franz Wagner?
Early prediction on Michigan's starting five: Zavier Simpson, Eli Brooks, Franz Wagner, Isaiah Livers, Jon Teske.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) September 25, 2019
“He reminds me a lot of a more skilled, and better defensively, Duncan Robinson,” said college basketball analyst Tim McCormick. “(Wagner) has a lot more upside. He’s 6-7, 6-8, and he may have grown since last summer when I saw him. But he really has a quick release. You can’t leave him. He just seems college ready.”
If what McCormick said is true, the skies the limit for Wagner, especially considering Franz is ranked higher in his class than his brother was and we all know how great Moritz Wagner turned out to be.
Should Franz start and have the year I’m expecting him to have, the NCAA tournament is going to be a lot more interesting than what people are predicting.