As UM dismantles another elite foe, this player surprisingly steals the show
Feb. 26—ANN ARBOR — Heading into Thursday's top-10 matchup between Michigan and Iowa, the game was billed as a battle of two heavyweights.
Michigan's Hunter Dickinson and Iowa's Luka Garza. The heralded freshman against the senior star. A bout between two big buddies.
At least, that was until sophomore wing Franz Wagner stole the spotlight with a game-high 21 points and a stellar all-around performance in Michigan's 79-57 win at Crisler Center.
From start to finish, Wagner was virtually unguardable as he unleashed his offensive repertoire. He knocked down a couple of 3-pointers. He relentlessly attacked the basket. He took over at the start of the second half, scoring nine of Michigan's first 11 points as the Wolverines began to turn a close game into another lopsided contest.
"Once I had it going a little bit, Coach (Juwan Howard) ran a couple plays for me and I think that gives a player a lot of confidence," said Wagner, who shot 9-for-12 from the field. "It did for me. I was trying to read the game and be aggressive and do what I work on every day."
As he has all season, Wagner showed off his ability to expertly finish at the rim and off the glass with either hand. On one play late in the first half, he tried to get the ball in the post to Dickinson before getting a step on his defender and scoring a reverse layup on a baseline drive.
Early in the second half, he got into the paint and flipped up a right-handed floater. A few possessions later, he took a feed from Dickinson out on the perimeter, got downhill, blew past Garza and converted a left-handed lay-in.
With no Iowa player able to stay in front of Wagner, he made the Hawkeyes pay time and again until the very end, when he capped the scoring by slashing across the lane and banking in a right-handed runner.
"You know Franz's competitive nature. If he sees any type of gap, he will drive it," senior forward Isaiah Livers said. "He has the best touch in the whole country."
It helps that Wagner got bigger and stronger by putting on 15 pounds over the offseason — and even taller as he grew another inch. At 6-foot-10 and 220 pounds, he often has a size advantage over his defender, which poses a problem for whoever has to guard him.
"I think it's harder for people to push me around when I'm driving to the basket," Wagner said. "I get to my angles (more easily) that I want to take to the basket.
"But it's also something you've got to learn how to use. The first couple games of the season you (could) see me struggle a little bit with people taking charges and stuff like that. I think I've done a good job these last couple games of being controlled but still being in attack mode."
Livers noted Wagner struggled at times last year with "getting bumped around a little bit." That hasn't been the case this season.
"He added some muscle and he's getting to the basket with ease, at will," Livers said. "This is what was expected out of Franz Wagner (from) everybody."
In addition to his scoring, Wagner played his part in Michigan's swarming effort and defended at a high level. He was glued to Joe Wieskamp's hip and limited the Iowa wing, who entered the game averaging 15.3 points, to 11 points on 4-for-9 shooting.
He also displayed his passing skills and vision with four assists, highlighted by a wraparound feed to Dickinson for layup and a bounce pass to Livers for a dunk on a fast break.
As a freshman, Wagner rarely initiated the offense and created for others. But after improving his ball-handling and taking on more responsibilities, he has shown an increasing comfort in making reads and plays out of pick-and-rolls.
"We've got to get Franz better in ball-screen actions," Howard recalled saying in a coaches' meeting. "He's accepted it and he's gotten better and better with it. I'm not surprised. When someone works on it, good things happen."
And when Wagner plays like he did on Thursday night, good things happen for the Wolverines.
"Franz, when he's aggressive and he's locked in, we definitely have the best team in the country," Livers said. "When Franz is aggressive, we're unbeatable."
Michigan at Indiana
Tip-off: Noon Saturday, Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Ind.
TV/radio: Fox/950
Records: No. 3 Michigan 17-1, 12-1 Big Ten; Indiana 12-11, 7-9
Outlook: Michigan has won the last seven meetings between the teams. Indiana's last win in the series was Feb. 2, 2016. ... The Hoosiers have lost three of four and are 2-6 against ranked opponents this season. Sophomore forward Trayce Jackson-Davis ranks third in the Big Ten in scoring (20.3 points) and second in rebounding (9.5).
Twitter: @jamesbhawkins
