It was rather surprising when Juwan Howard announced that freshman guard Franz Wagner would start in the quarter-final matchup against Iowa State to kick things off for Michigan basketball in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas.
For starters, this is Wagner’s first game action as a Wolverine, and coming off a long layoff with the wrist injury that kept him out of basketball since the end of training camp and the first few games of the season. Not to mention that this is also Wagner’s first taste of basketball in North America, since he has played most of his basketball career in Germany with Alba Berlin.