Coach Howard Going to Greece to Meet Franz at FIBA U18
Franz Wagner & Germany are competing in the FIBA U18 European Championship, and Juwan Howard is going for a couple days to meet him for the first time & see him play. (link)
Huge if true.
LOL. AKA. Vacation.
“The game’s being played on Santorini, right? Oh, it’s not? Ah well, I’ll just watch the highlights later. Pass the Ouzo.”
Nothing wrong with a working vacation. Go to the beach, have lunch, catch a game, meet the Wagners.
Here's the FIBA U18 European Championship website. Germany is in Group A, playing Serbia, Turkey & Great Britain.
“I'll be there the 28th and 29th to watch him in person,” Howard said Monday. “More importantly just to let him know that family is coming to support him because we're family. He's a part of my family."
We'll have to see how the next recruiting class is assembled, but so far it seems like Howard is doing pretty alright recruiting wise!
Nice vacation.
It's pretty crazy that a guy committed to a school without meeting the coach in person. Franz is going to be a great Michigan Man.
Smart.
He's got to see him in person and scout him - see if he's truly the plug and play SG on this year's team.
Reading between the lines of all of the comments made by coaches over the past few weeks, it's clear Livers is a SF.
Teske, Johns, Livers, Wagner, Simpson
Castleton, (no backup PF - will have to sub Johns or Livers out early), Nunez/Bajema, Brooks/Bajema, DeJulius
Davis
What did you read that convinces you that Livers is going to be an SF?
Straight from the coaches...
Every comment refers to him as a "wing" and Coach Howard has even called him a "big guard."
I obviously think we could him at PF, Franz at SF and start Brooks, but in reading the comments the past 2-3 weeks it doesn't look like that is where we're going to start. Doesn't mean it doesn't end up that way by the time Game 1 rolls around.
With Howard coming from the NBA, guys like Livers are PF/SF tweeners...so it'll be interesting to see what he does with him for his development. Tattoos aside...look at a guy like Mike Scott or Tobias Harris. I could see Livers in a similar mold.
Just wanna toss the name Jaron Faulds out there also. Not sure what to expect, but he's the Columbia transfer who sat out last year. He's PF-sized. 6'10", 240. Who knows.
If he's any good...DO WANT.
We need a 1 year grad transfer to eat up these scholarships we have without mortgaging our future.
Even if it's to come off the bench, Jaaron Simmons had a few moments that we REALLY needed a couple of years ago. I'd absolutely take the PF version of Simmons for 1 year.
I bet Volos is lovely this time of year.
Just came to the realization that Franz committed to a coach he had never met before, holy shit that was ballsy.
Sort of. He definitely knew Saadi.
In addition to meeting the Wagner family and seeing Franz play, Howard will have the opportunity to scout many of the best young European basketball players and perhaps meet some of the coaches. It would be pretty cool if he were able to develop some relationships that lead to future European recruits.
Damn, tough crowd - who is negging this?
When I read yesterday that he hasn't met him yet, I was surprised, since I assumed they did, since Franz committed to us. Word it was only on FaceTime. I really would have figured that Howard would have flown to Germany to see him prior to committing.. Anyone else surprised by this ? Had he stayed at Alba, I would imagine several would blame a non- in person meeting on it.
Pretty sure there were dead periods in place that made an in person meeting off campus against the NCAA rules after Juwan was hired, while Franz was in the middle of his team's playoff run making another campus visit virtually impossible.