8 — Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
‘Mo Weezy’ adjusting to life in America, Michigan
The freshman is
impressing, but
still has room to
improve
By LEV FACHER
Managing Editor
Moritz Wagner hadn’t seen a
rebounding gun before.
A common sight in American
gyms, Michigan men’s basketball
players
frequently
use
the
device, which funnels made and
missed shots into a machine that
shoots the ball back into its user’s
waiting hands. It’s addictively
convenient — instead of wasting
time chasing basketballs around
the court, players use their
limited time and energy working
on their jump shot.
So Wagner recently asked,
a day after using it for the first
time, if he could give the gun
another shot. But the fresh-
faced, 18-year-old German made
an
understandable
mistake:
instead of requesting to use the
gun, he asked if he could go back
on the “pistol.”
“Nobody knew what he was
talking about,” said Michigan
coach John Beilein.
Minor linguistic nuances are
the tip of the iceberg when it
comes to the transition Wagner
faces.
Shifting
continents
is
plenty to handle on its own, but
Wagner is also in the midst of
simply transitioning to college.
Within the program, he doesn’t
have much company.
Unlike senior guards Spike
Albrecht and Caris LeVert, who
started at Michigan as part of a
five-member
recruiting
class, Wagner
counts
only
freshman
forward Brent
Hibbits,
a
walk-on,
among
his
classmates.
“(Wagner) is
still getting the
slang
down,”
said sophomore forward Aubrey
Dawkins. “They’re both really
smart kids, and doing well so far,
I think.”
But Wagner’s time playing
in
Germany’s
Basketball
Bundesliga, the country’s highest
level of club competition, should
prove invaluable.
“Fortunately, I think Wagner,
since
he’s
been
playing
overseas,
has
been
around
older
guys,”
Albrecht
said.
“He’s
played
with
some
grown
men.
He’s
a
very
high-IQ
basketball
player,
so
he fits right in here. He’s been
picking up on things very quickly,
and he brings an edge, a sense of
competitiveness to the team that
not a lot of freshmen do.”
Wagner — or “Mo Weezy,” as
Albrecht calls him — averaged
16.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per
game for Alba Berlin, one of the
German league’s most successful
clubs, in 2014-15.
After committing to Michigan
in April, the freshman forward
arrived in Ann Arbor in June
and took classes during the
University’s summer term.
Wagner had adjusted well,
Beilein said Friday, and has
begun adding weight to his
youthful frame. At 6-foot-10, he
displayed impressive touch from
the outside at the Wolverines’
open practice on Friday.
Where Wagner might slot into
the lineup is still in question.
While he’s listed at one inch
taller than sophomore forward
Ricky Doyle, who established a
firm hold on the ‘5’ position last
season, Wagner slots in at just
225 pounds, and likely lacks the
physicality to command the low
post.
Junior forward Zak Irvin is
capable of filling time at power
forward if needed, and with
sophomore forwards D.J. Wilson
and Kameron Chatman back
from freshman seasons that
showed flashes of promise, there
likely won’t be many minutes
available at the ‘4,’ either.
Wherever he slots in — if
he slots in — Wagner’s talent
is unmistakable, but Beilein
acknowledged that he is very
much a work in progress, albeit
an exciting one.
“One minute, he’ll look very
awkward,” Beilein said. “And
the next minute he’ll give you a
‘wow’ moment. He’s 6-foot-10,
and he just did that?”
MEN’S BASKETBALL
“He’s a very
high-IQ
basketball
player.”