Kornacki: Wagner Dominates, Motivates and Puts on a Final Four Show

By Steve Kornacki

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- This was a performance we'll be talking about for years. What Moritz Wagner did on college basketball's biggest stage was something to behold. He dominated, motivated and put on a show.

Westwood One Sports radio analyst Kevin Kugler said of Wagner: "He has been Superman for the Wolverines today." He was definitely something of a superhero in leading the University of Michigan to a comeback win over Loyola Chicago, turning a 10-point second-half deficit into a 12-point win.

Kugler's praise was mentioned to Wagner, who flexed his muscles after some particularly big plays Saturday night (March 31) in a 69-57 win in the first Final Four semifinal at the Alamodome.

"Superman?" asked Wagner, smiling and waving that off. "I wouldn't go that far."

Wagner, a 6-foot-11 junior, finished with 24 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. When told that he was only the third player to score 20-plus points with 15-plus rebounds in a national semifinal game, and that the other two were Larry Bird in 1979 and Akeem (now Hakeem) Olajuwon in 1983, Wagner said, "Wow. If you put it like that, that's probably cool. But to be honest, I kept looking possession by possession. ... And I honestly just tried to do my job."

His mother, Beate, and his father, Axel, had flown in for the game from Berlin, Germany. Mom wore his No. 13 jersey and Dad a blue T-shirt with a block M that read: "Winner Stays."

And that is exactly what the No. 3 seed Wolverines (33-7) are doing, advancing to Monday's (April 2) national championship game against No. 1 seed Villanova (35-4), a 95-79 winner over another No. 1 seed, Kansas, in the other semifinal.

"We've got one more!" Wagner told his teammates upon entering the locker room. "We didn't come here to lose."

Wagner wouldn't let them lose this one.

"I'm just so proud of him," said Michigan coach John Beilein, who finds himself in the title game for the second time in six seasons. "As you know, during his first two years, rebounding and him were not synonymous. But we continued to see people switch screens, and one of the plans today was, 'Moe, go down. We might not be able to get you the ball, but rebound it.' And he did a great job."

Larry Legend, The Dream and Moe: Wagner's 24 points and 15 rebounds in a national semifinal put him in an exclusive club.

Beilein added that the Wagner putbacks were "the only way we really scored" in the first half, but then came a 47-point second-half avalanche for the Wolverines that buried the Ramblers.

Wagner was front and center -- nailing three-pointers, making steals, putting up a "STOP" sign in the lane, firing up the crowd as well as his teammates, and even crashing into the TBS announcing trio.

"He brings energy to everything that he does," said Beilein. "Everything."

Michigan has an NCAA-leading 14-game winning streak thanks to Wagner holding down the fort with a double-double in the first half (11 points and 11 rebounds) before the rest of the team joined him and Charles Matthews, who had two good halves and finished with 17 points. Beilein also credited Matthews for holding Loyola's Donte Ingram, who averaged 11.3 points, to two points.

Duncan Robinson (nine points) and Jordan Poole (seven) came off the bench to score all but one of their combined 16 in the second half.

"Wagner got the ball out of that double-team real quick and hit it," said Loyola coach Porter Moser. "And he hit another one, and Robinson hit another one. They stepped up. That's what great teams do."

Wagner showed the way the whole way -- including in the halftime locker room. With Michigan trailing, 29-22, Wagner and fellow tri-captains Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman and Robinson put a jolt into the team.

"The captains came into the room," said freshman forward Isaiah Livers, "and they said, 'This isn't over. We've got 20 minutes left to play, and we know what we can do. Let's go get to it."

Wagner's performance -- which included making 10-of-16 shots with three three-pointers and the most rebounds by a Wolverine in any game since 2013 -- was something his teammates marveled at.

"He was incredible," said Robinson. "We kind of thought it would be a little bit of an advantage inside, especially if they were going to switch ball screens. He was just physically dominating, which is something we haven't seen from him at all times. He usually does it with his skill. So, to dominate in a different way was pretty special. He was great for us. He played like the player he is, and we need him to be that way."

Wagner scored eight points on four putback shots off rebounds in the first half, when he also made a trey. He didn't have to rebound as much in the second half because the Wolverines didn't miss as much, going from .290 shooting to .571 after intermission.

Wagner got the second half going with a dunk and quickly made two of his three steals as Michigan began to dominate defensively. When he hit a three-pointer to tie the score at 47-all, teammate Austin Davis made eye contact with Wagner and made a muscle, pointing to his right biceps, a la Wagner.

When Wagner scored on another putback shot with 4:59 remaining, was fouled, and added the free throw, the Wolverines went up, 54-47.

The game was getting away from the Ramblers, but they hung tough and cut the lead to five points. Then Wagner hit another trey and the lead was never less than eight the rest of the way.

"When you have a talented teammate like that who can perform like that on the big stage that we're on right now," said Abdur-Rahkham, "that is huge. We so appreciate having him on our team.

"Moe just kept fighting. He knew that he could be an X-factor in this game."

Wagner was in pursuit of another steal in the second half and tried in vain to keep the ball he batted away in bounds. He lunged for it and began losing his balance before jumping onto the press table and over TBS announcers Grant Hill, Jim Nantz and Bill Raftery. Raftery's glasses came off in the commotion and fell to the ground, where Wagner apparently disfigured the frames. The announcers all smiled and exchanged pleasantries with Wagner as he made his way back onto the court, and Raftery later joked that he was sending Wagner a bill for the glasses.

"Yeah, right," said Wagner, shaking his head and smiling. "He can afford it, dude."

Wagner with TBA Broadcasters
Raftery, Nantz and Hill (from left) were all smiles after their close encounter with Wagner.

It was a wild moment. Maybe not "One Shining Moment," but one to remember.

"I got lucky that the table was there," Wagner told me. "It could've been a lot worse, but I had to do something. That would've been a big steal, and I just keep running. So, I was just happy there weren't more people right behind them to run into."

He also did well to completely miss wiping out the TV monitors.

It was an example of just how relentless the Wolverines were in the second half, when they dominated, 47-28.

"Our body language wasn't great, and we kind of figured that out at the half," said Wagner. "That's the beautiful thing about this team. Even when the body language isn't great, we stick together. You can yell at each other, argue with each other, and then the next minute it's gone.

"We made adjustments and picked it up as a group. The second half, we ran a little more set plays just because we were in front of our bench (on offense after switching sides of the court at halftime). So, it's easy to call. And our offense was a lot more organized. It just happened like that."

Before the Wolverines boarded the bus for the short trip to their downtown hotel, I asked Wagner what about his performance meant the most.

He smiled widely and said, "That we won. That's all that matters."