The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1147681
AUGUST 2019 THE WOLVERINE 13 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS THEY SAID IT • "I first started thinking about being a coach in the 2009-10 season when I was playing for the Portland Trail Blazers. I had a really good conversation with [then head coach] Nate McMillan about my future and what I would do once I retired, and was thinking about a front office position at the time. "Nate told me he could see me coach- ing someday, because he saw a lot of the same coaching qualities that [for- mer NBA head coach] George Karl had seen in him. I then signed with the Mi- ami Heat and worked with [head coach] Erik Spoelstra and [assistant] David Fiz- dale, and David said the exact same thing to me. "I then began to think that maybe coaching is my calling, and haven't looked back since." — Michigan head coach Juwan Howard on The Dan Patrick Show July 2, discussing when he first con- sidered becoming a head coach • "I don't see this Michigan team losing three games during the regular season unless it suffers a ton of attrition at cru- cial spots. In my opinion, even if Michi- gan isn't the most talented team in the Big Ten (that's still Ohio State), it enters the 2019 season with fewer question marks than any other team in the con- ference." — CBS Sports' Tom Fornelli "You know that if your kid goes to Michigan, they'll be taken care of. It's a great asset to be a part of the uni- versity hospital, because it's second to none." — Former U-M All-American and current emergency medicine physician Chris Hutchinson, whose son, Aidan, is a sophomore defensive end on the Michigan football team "[FRANZ] WAGNER is a pure wing player who can really shoot the ball from deep. He's a solid athlete, sees the game at a high level and looks to be an outstanding player to pair alongside four-star wing Cole Bajema in Michigan's 2019 class. "Obviously, I've not seen near as much of Wagner as I have the usual inbound prospect, but I've seen enough to know he is good. Can he replace Ignas Brazdeikis' produc- tion right out of the box? Maybe not. That's a lot to expect. "But, once he gets acclimated, I don't anticipate the drop-off being all that much, and he's a guy that should have the folks in Ann Arbor feeling pretty good." — Rivals.com national basketball recruiting analyst Eric Bossi on Franz Wagner's decision to sign with Michigan PHOTO COURTESY ALBA BERLIN PHOTO COURTESY CHRIS HUTCHINSON 5-B Was where U-M's 1997 national championship squad checked in on The Athletic's count- down of the best teams of the 1990s. The Wolverines shared fifth place with 1997 Nebraska, the team with which it split the national polls at the end of the season (the Wolverines finished atop the Associated Press vote, while the Cornhuskers went from second to first in the coaches' poll after blowing out No. 3 Tennessee in the Orange Bowl). 7th Was where former Michigan standout Ignas Brazdeikis appeared on SB Na- tion's ranking of the top rookies in the NBA Summer League. He erupted for 30 points in a July 7 contest — becoming the first in the Summer League to reach the 30-point mark — and also pulled down eight rebounds in that one, but he starred in more than just that one game. "Brazdeikis was the Knicks' most con- sistent and efficient scorer throughout Summer League, averaging 18 points per game on 67.4 percent true shoot- ing," the outlet wrote. "He was on fire from the three-point line, going 11 of 19 (57.9 percent) from behind the arc. … The Knicks have found themselves a steal in the second round as long as Iggy continues to hit his jumpers." 2,020,596 Viewers watched M ichigan and Vanderbilt battle in the winner-take-all game three of the College World Series (CWS), making it the most-watched baseball broadcast on ESPN (including MLB games) as of July 5, according to Sports Media Watch. All three contests between the Wolver- ines and Commodores ranked among the top four most-watched ESPN base- ball broadcasts of the year and aver- aged 1.96 million viewers. U-M was also involved with the most-watched CWS tilt prior to the final series; its win over Florida State garnered 1.29 million view- ers. The final series also drew fans in per- son at TD Ameritrade Park — for the first time all three games drew at least 20,000 fans to the stadium in Omaha, Neb.