If Franz was a US High School senior, any estimations on where he’d be in the Class of ‘19 recruiting rankings? Would he be a Top50 recruit? Top20? 50-75 range? Outside the Top100?
Sam Webb opined Wagner would be a top-50 guy and on the cusp of 5* status were he an American high schooler.
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Data points I’ve seen (including from Webb, as that post hit as I type) are 25-50 range. Pretty similar to Iggy.
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My bad 
How do you guys think he compares to iggy? Better ? Worse? I think they’re pretty neck in neck but Franz might be an even better fit.
I think Iggy was a phenomenal fit and would have been nearly unstoppable offensively if he wasn’t playing next to two non-shooters at all times.
I love Franz and think he could play from day one, but if he ever at any point in his four years has the offensive impact Iggy did, I’ll be ecstatic
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less physical than iggy (also 2-3 years younger), but a quick release and better long range shooter. more willing distributor, but less dangerous attacking hoop more so due to being smaller than less athletic than iggy
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IMO, Franz will come in and be comparable to a Joe Wieskamp with a little more upside. My predicition is that he’ll be a little bit better than Iggy offensively, but it’ll probably be debatable since they’ll have different kinds of stat profiles. Iggy was a 110.7 ORating with a 24.5% usage, where I would guess that that Franz would be in the range of a 120 ORating with a 20-21% usage.
I would say it probably compares like:
Iggy
- Better defender
- MUCH better rebounder
- Better at attacking a scrambling defense, and getting to the rim and generating shots in those scenarios
Franz
- Slightly better athlete
- Better, more consistent shooter, with a higher volume. Teams will always get punished when they leave him to help.
- Better at a variety of little things on offense that Iggy would fail at and bog the offense down at times
- Running and spreading the floor in transition
- “Extra pass” or any pass at all
- Better shot selection
- Will still be able to attack closeouts, but not at the same level as Iggy since he was ELITE at getting to the rim against a scrambling defense. I would guess that Franz finishes better in those scenarios though since Iggy would often force very tough rim attempts and miss.
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Das ist pretty darn gut analysis.
I’m curious what this means to some of you guys. I see it thrown around a lot and the same thing happened with Iggy, I believe.
Does this kind of thing “equivalent to a top-X recruit” really resonate with you guys more than more of an in-depth look at how what a player does (or doesn’t do) would fit at Michigan? Does equivalent to a top-45 recruit mean something specifically to you about how ready someone is to play? Some top-45 kids are very different in terms of readiness than others.
Just curious.
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Speaking for me, personally, I think it all has a role in helping understand the next-year and longer-term potential.
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They are wildly different players so I don’t think it really makes sense to compare their games. Wagner is extremely skinny and a more natural shooter while Iggy is an ox-strong combo forward.
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Seen a lot of talk about Wagner being really skinny, I disagree based on some recent photos I have seen. Is he absolutely jacked like Iggy or griii was no but he also doesn’t look as skinny as levert, stauskas, bajema did entering Michigan. Based on the photos he’s put on some serious mass since the nba camp this past summer.
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At around 6-7/6-8 and 188 pounds. That’s pretty skinny compared to Iggy 
and is probably a little skinnier than where Nik was as a freshman (6-5, 190). I would also add that being skinny isn’t really a huge problem… we are talking about basketball here.
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Dylan, if Justin Pierce were to commit to Michigan next week after his UNC official visit to likely start for us at the 3 position, I have a few questions:
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Would Beilein then have Wagner or Quinones higher on his target list if both are HIGHLY interested in Michigan?
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Could Wagner start at the 2 position for us and enhance our team performance next year vs our current 2 position players Brooks and maybe DeJulius?
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Please evaluate how WAGNER could perform for us NEXT YEAR at the 2 position vs QUINONES and HYLAND.
Thanks.
It just always strikes me as a bit of a cop out. I feel like national writers pegged Iggy, Moe and now Franz as just about “top 40” guys. It the perfect landing spot between not a five star but good enough that if they perform I will look right but if they fail well there are top-50 type kids that fail all the time.
It is fine because to be honest national sites don’t really evaluate internationally so it isn’t really a knock on them.
I’m just of the opinion that anything a guy like Mike Schmitz says about Franz is a lot more valuable. And analysis of him is probably easiest to do as far as how he would fit at Michigan compared to how he would stack up as a national prospect.
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A lot of hypotheticals going on here. Quinones is a nice roster fit as a two but I think Wagner probably has the higher ceiling.
Could you play a 2-3-4 of Wagner/Pierce/Livers, I don’t see why you couldn’t try it. All three guys chip in some different skills and the truth of the matter is that the ball will be dominated by Zavier Simpson. I see more issues defensively where there’s a lot of length but not a lot of quickness.
I said on the pod today that I think if you can sign any of the four guys who are near the top of UM’s board for late adds that they would be able to make an impact. Hyland is sort of the wildcard which gives him some potential but also probably more risk of not panning out.
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Perhaps we could play Livers, Pierce, and Wagner at the 4,3,2 but give more time to Brooks at the 2 and Wilson at the 3 when we are facing opponents with particularly fast 2’s or 3’s.
Can’t disagree with any of that (particularly as we add more data points and they all seem to fall into that same bucket).
Next year is one thing, however, 2 years out, having Wilson, Franz, Bajema on the perimeter ups the shooting capability of this team big time. Wilson and Franz are both more suited for the 3 than the 2. If one of them can play both, it is a nice 3 person rotation for 2 spots.
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