Michigan Basketball: Franz Wagner a breakout candidate in 2020-21

Defensive pedigree

Two words to describe Wagner as a basketball player are “intelligent” and “engaged;” that isn’t shown better anywhere else than when he is on the defensive side of a basketball court. Defense is the name of the game in the Big Ten, and almost no other player fits that bill better than Wagner. He averaged 1.3 steals per game alongside 0.6 blocks per game last season, but his defensive excellence goes far beyond those two simple box score statistics.

Where Wagner does a majority of his work is beyond the box score; in the little things that statistics struggle to grasp such as team/help defense and solid on-ball work. As the saying goes (possibly), “it’s the little things in life…and on the basketball court.” Take this possession as an example:

Wagner is doing many good things here on this possession. First, he successfully trails and keeps up with his assignment through a herd of traffic across the perimeter. Then, he stops a post entry pass not just once, but twice, to keep the ball away from Xavier Tillman. Next he fights off two Tillman ball screens before using his length to poke away the ball. Finally, he dives down into the mud and scraps his way into forcing the jump ball arrow to go off.

He essentially stopped an entire possession single-handedly. This wasn’t some one-off occurrence either; see this next clipped possession against Ohio State:

Wagner again stalls the post entry pass by simply adjusting his body slightly. He follows that up by stopping a cut attempt from the top of the wing (as seen from when Wagner is acting as a cutter, it is not common for defenders to sleep there). Then he sort of comically shoves his teammate to assure a defensive switch can happen, allowing him to then help disrupt a Kaleb Wesson layup attempt (which is no easy task). All of that in just one possession.

But when one is as adept at this defense thing as Franz is, those kinds of possessions doesn’t just come by every blue moon. There are reasons to explain the madness he can cause.

His combination of height and mobility largely play to that. For example, he’s able to act as a help defender so often because of how fast he can recover ground back to his original assignment. He’s an excellent close-out defender (as displayed by his 66.7 percent coverage rate on catch-and-shoot jumpers, per Synergy) so he can afford to take more risks when guarding off-ball.

He also never seems to lose focus – he always has his eyes pealing all across the court –  and has very active limbs. He regularly jumps into passing lanes and never leaves his hands hang low when guarding on ball (they’re either up high ready to throw off a pass or directly into the offender trying to disrupt their handle). As for his active feet, he’s a willing trail defender when his man is on the run and on-ball (despite his height) he can hang with even the most nimble ball handlers (see this quick example of him holding his own in a tango against Cassius Winston).

Franz Wagner first put on a Michigan Basketball jersey with big expectations, thanks to his brother Mortiz, He likely felt that when he first stepped onto campus, but still managed to put together what was a great freshman season showcase. He showed he could become an elite “easy bucket getter” on offense and potentially a foundational piece on defense. Those freshman year expectations will be even bigger in 2020-21, but as last season and this article suggests: Franz will be just fine.