Man, looks like a varsity team playing a JV team. Is Alba Berlin this bad?
Sure looks like it, but I didn’t think so. ALBA won the whole NBBL tournament last year and has a pretty respectable club as far as I know.
The refs in this game have been brutal, has to be over 50 FTA in 3 10 minute quarters thus far.
The comeback is on! Alba cuts it to 7 with a Moe Wagner basket with under 4 minutes to go.
And Wagner is called for a charge trying to go ISO on a pick and pop.
Now I’m not going to over react because it’s only one game, but Im having a HARD time with equating Wagner to a top 20-40 recruit based on the 10-15 minutes I was able to view.
Certainly wasn’t a top-40 performance, but it was also pretty clearly an awful game for his team and he barely played in the first half because of fouls. Disappointing because it would have been nice to see a bit more of him to hopefully evaluate.
I’ll say this though…Wagner is no p$#6y…not afraid to mix it up in the paint. I definitely like his competitive spirit. Not very skilled though if we’re being honest. Not horrible, but definitely don’t want him dribbling in a half court set. He seems to flourish in transition.
Good to hear Wagner’s competitive spirit being confirmed. Sounds like he has the key intangible of “want to”
It wasn’t just his competitive spirit (getting into it with one of the FCB guys) as much as it was his energy everywhere. He was vocal on the bench, he was sprinting in warmups, definitey an ‘energy giver’ as John Beilein would put it.
He’s probably not skilled in the sense that they’ll be running offense through him, but depending on his height (hard to tell on video) he could be skilled enough to take advantage of bigger/slower defenders.
Wagner is the type of kid I would recruit if I were a college coach. As strange as it sounds to say this in the context of a Euro prospect, he has some ‘dawg’ in him. I’ll take average/below average skills with heart/toughness in a heartbeat when the kid is in the 6’8 range.
Wagner isn’t a shooter either, very up and down from what I could see from the limited film. His shot looks very robotic and stiff if that makes sense. From a functional standpoint, he’s much more of a traditional big that is more efficient in the paint area, but has the ability to step out occasionally.
Wagner is much more Dante Grantham rather than Smot if that makes sense. Not saying Wagner plays like Grantham, only that he’s more efficient around the rim vs the perimeter.
Now that Max is gone (and we’re talking about bigs)…WTF was JB thinking when he took Max over Nance Jr? I watched quite a bit of Nance at the combine and we could’ve definitely used him. Even in HS it was pretty clear Nance was considerably better than Max. I think we’re most likely playing for the NC in 14 if Nance was on the roster.
Wagner is the type of kid I would recruit if I were a college coach. As strange as it sounds to say this in the context of a Euro prospect, he has some 'dawg' in him. I'll take average/below average skills with heart/toughness in a heartbeat when the kid is in the 6'8 range.Wagner isn’t a shooter either, very up and down from what I could see from the limited film. His shot looks very robotic and stiff if that makes sense. From a functional standpoint, he’s much more of a traditional big that is more efficient in the paint area, but has the ability to step out occasionally.
Wagner is much more Dante Grantham rather than Smot if that makes sense. Not saying Wagner plays like Grantham, only that he’s more efficient around the rim vs the perimeter.
Do you think he will get significant playing time next year?
Wagner is the type of kid I would recruit if I were a college coach. As strange as it sounds to say this in the context of a Euro prospect, he has some 'dawg' in him. I'll take average/below average skills with heart/toughness in a heartbeat when the kid is in the 6'8 range.Wagner isn’t a shooter either, very up and down from what I could see from the limited film. His shot looks very robotic and stiff if that makes sense. From a functional standpoint, he’s much more of a traditional big that is more efficient in the paint area, but has the ability to step out occasionally.
Wagner is much more Dante Grantham rather than Smot if that makes sense. Not saying Wagner plays like Grantham, only that he’s more efficient around the rim vs the perimeter.
Do you think he will get significant playing time next year?
Nope, needs to add weight/strength. He is not an instant impact type of kid in my view. Think he can be a nice player down the road just from pure energy and playing hard. If GR3 had Wagners motor, he would’ve been an All American at UM.
Only saw Nance from a few game highlights and during the tournament in a losing effort – and only vaguely remember the staff’s interest in him – but he looked really good from what I did see. Did not know the staff had preferred Max over him. Not sure how they arrived at that assessment.
Now that Max is gone (and we're talking about bigs)..........WTF was JB thinking when he took Max over Nance Jr? I watched quite a bit of Nance at the combine and we could've definitely used him. Even in HS it was pretty clear Nance was considerably better than Max. I think we're most likely playing for the NC in 14 if Nance was on the roster.
Never understood that one either. That was a rare miss by JB in terms of taking one less heralded guy versus another.
Yeah… Never really understood that one. I went to watch Nance in HS and he looked pretty good. Only thing I can think of is that GR3 was already in the fold which made him a bit redundant.
From the comments above it sounds like Wagner is more of the traditional, MSU, type 4 man. How do you guys seem him projecting into JBs system, when he is on the floor is it going to be more of the two big man type offense that the usual guards/wings and a center that JB uses?
To be fair, Max did have a bunch of injuries during his career. With that said, I really liked Nance and thought we should have taken him instead, and of course in hindsight it was a complete no-brainer.
From the comments above it sounds like Wagner is more of the traditional, MSU, type 4 man. How do you guys seem him projecting into JBs system, when he is on the floor is it going to be more of the two big man type offense that the usual guards/wings and a center that JB uses?
I think Wagner would be best utilized getting the ball when he’s on the move…most likely off a curl from the left side coming right. He’s not a guy where you can dump the ball in the post with his back to the basket and expect him to get a bucket. He is going to get his points in transition, putbacks, and slipping screens or dumpoffs. If he can improve his jumpshot I could see the staff running pick and pop, but he would have to improve his release time a bit as well.
Matt D you should have a discussions about Nance JR with Bear. He couldn’t believe Michigan passed either.