Okay, Go on…
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If it ain’t from James Yoder I don’t need to hear it.
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He was coming to check out his new team and school. Then JB left.
You may know more about this than I do, Bob, but what I’m saying was that for him to come in the first place indicated a serious interest in forgoing European basketball for a time. I wouldn’t think that was necessarily extinguished when Beilein left.
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Lol. There’s not much more than that. There’s a poster who claims to have spoken to Juwan at a booster event in the last week. Says Juwan feels confident in Franz coming. Not sure if he has a track record. So it could be true, it could be false. Who knows.
I agree on all counts. I was very confident well before he scheduled this trip. Unclear since JB left but I am guessing you are correct. I also wouldn’t ignore that Moe plays with LeBron and LeBron will do whatever he can to help Juwan. Might be a good character reference for Moe to help alleviate fears for Franz.
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Also, Juwan played with Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas. May be a 2nd good character reference either directly or through Moe.
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That sounds dubious. Wouldn’t it be a recruiting violation for Juwan to specifically discuss a recruit like that?
I don’t think it is a recruiting violation for a coach to discuss a prospect in private (i.e. with a friend or booster or whatever else). It is a violation to discuss a recruit in the media.
That is not to endorse anything that Reegs posted. Not sure where it even came from and obviously it is a pretty easy story to make up too.
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I need a boost today and am embracing it as absolute fact. Gonna let it power me through the weekend.
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The idea isn’t really “forgoing European basketball” or not, it is just about figuring out which route is a better path (personally and professionally) to the NBA.
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What’s your opinion about that? Is he likely to have more people looking in on his games here than in Berlin? Sure seems like more fun here. I have sometimes watched pro hoop while traveling in Europe and while there is enthusiasm, there are also sometimes little gyms and sparse crowds. Maybe for Berlin he’s playing at a high enough level that it’s commensurate.
Dylan always coming in with the TRUTH
On the podcast a while back Brendan and Dylan seemed to say that both routes work, but the A2 route might be more fun and a more diverse cultural experience that’s attractive to him. His big bro had a blast on campus.
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If Alba makes Euroleague, it is pretty easy to make an argument that it would be a better opportunity to stay over there. I figure he would play against better players, not have any limit on practice time and exposure wouldn’t be an issue. He’d be playing at the highest level of basketball you can participate in outside of the NBA.
On the other hand, Moe loved his time at Michigan and valued the college experience. I also don’t know if ALBA would put some kind of a large buyout in his deal which could make him more likely to be a draft-and-stash for a few years and be stuck in Germany longer (this would make sense from ALBA’s POV, either get a big pay day or get to keep him). I also don’t know what role he’s being pitched at ALBA which could have an impact.
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That’s clearly the right approach. Am doing it too.
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I don’t think that Alba has a big budget to throw around, and it is too risky to award Franz a contract that he cannot refute. It is more about development
I think the general trend of European players in the NBA would suggest that playing his age 18-20 years in Europe would be better preparation for the NBA than coming to college. I’m basing that merely on the fact that far more European NBA players came directly from European club teams than from American colleges.
That’s a dicey statement though because you could argue that better European teenage prospects will be more aggressively retained by their clubs than lower level ones - ie, Franz Wagner, playing on the senior team at 18 will be more aggressively pursued by Alba than an 18 year old on the next level down, and will thus be more likely to stay (more money, more attention).
In general, I’m of the opinion that college basketball at large isn’t that great at player development (at least, it seems anecdotally true that the NBA doesn’t think it is), and that European pro clubs are generally much better regarded (again, this could be a product of their players being full-time basketball players).
Personally, if I was 18, and my sole metric was “what gets me to the NBA”, I’d stay at Alba, get paid, spend 100% of my time developing as a player, and hope to hit the draft in a few years. This is why I generally think high school kids should go play in Australia instead of play at Duke.
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Having heard Moe talk about the significant difference between his first year in the NBA and his time at Michigan, I have to believe the “life experience” part of it will play a role. As one example…Karl Kauffmann (top pitcher for Mich baseball) was just drafted in the 2nd round of the MLB draft. He probably could have been drafted in a similar range out of high school. His dad tweeted a message to all high school kids saying how great it was to forego the pro route and get the experience to be part of a team and develop relationships for life. He was expressing a strong opinion on go the college route. This is a roundabout example but I think it may be relevant here. This really comes down to…does Franz want to experience college life and be a typical 18 year old on a campus or go right to the pro’s. I am guessing it is the former.
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On Sam Webb’s Recruiting Roundup podcast for 6/6 he stated both Wilson & Wagner were “uphill battles” in his opinion but not lost causes.