Wagner

H

Hawkfnntn

Well-Known Member
If the guy wants to play sports after college his best bet would be to trade in his sneakers for cleats and go to the football office. He just don't look like a basketball player to me. He's got a very limited offensive game. Looks out of place out there as far as just playing situational ball. He's a tweener in the sence that at 6'7 215-220 he's not a power forward and he doesn't have the skill set to be a small forward. He just don't. I don't think that'll come in time. Either you have the skill set and mind for the game or you don't. Some will say I'm over reacting to one bad game for him where he got in foul trouble early but look at his body of work so far. I don't see him getting much better than he is...

If he were to be playing a hybrid TE position on the other side of Fant for the next couple of years they could really do some damage and give Stanley some nice big targets to work with. Something to think about.
 
I believe he was a D1 football recruit as WR. I remember a story on Iowa BB player who visited OSU as WR prospect, pretty sure it was Wagner.
 
yep, Wagner:
http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sp...awkeyes-football-big-ten-rick-brown/28990569/

He didn't play HS football until Senior and was 1st team all-state in largest class with multiple D1 offers including Kentucky and invite from OSU. He also ran the anchor leg on Wayne's 4x100 relay team that finished fourth in the state track meet.

A gifted athlete at 6-7 and a good pair of hands, Wagner had instant success — First-team all-state success — in Ohio's largest class. Several Division I programs offered scholarships.

"I didn't see it coming," Wagner said. "I was just going out there to help my teammates. They needed a receiver, and asked me to play. I was like, 'It's my senior year, let's go out there and have some fun.' It just kind of blew up."

When Tim Hinton, an assistant to Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer, showed up at Wayne one day to visit with Wagner, things got real. No scholarship offer was put on the table, but Wagner was told one would be coming if he decided to get serious about football.
 
I wonder if it's a confidence issue with himself. Or if he just likes basketball more and thinks his injury risk is lower playing it instead. I'm curious what his line of thinking is on what his goals are. That said it'd be our luck that if he decided to change to football he'd transfer to OSU....
 
Hawkfnntn said:
If the guy wants to play sports after college his best bet would be to trade in his sneakers for cleats and go to the football office. He just don't look like a basketball player to me. He's got a very limited offensive game. Looks out of place out there as far as just playing situational ball. He's a tweener in the sence that at 6'7 215-220 he's not a power forward and he doesn't have the skill set to be a small forward. He just don't. I don't think that'll come in time. Either you have the skill set and mind for the game or you don't. Some will say I'm over reacting to one bad game for him where he got in foul trouble early but look at his body of work so far. I don't see him getting much better than he is...

If he were to be playing a hybrid TE position on the other side of Fant for the next couple of years they could really do some damage and give Stanley some nice big targets to work with. Something to think about.
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I said basically the same thing on Twitter.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
If the guy wants to play sports after college his best bet would be to trade in his sneakers for cleats and go to the football office. He just don't look like a basketball player to me. He's got a very limited offensive game. Looks out of place out there as far as just playing situational ball. He's a tweener in the sence that at 6'7 215-220 he's not a power forward and he doesn't have the skill set to be a small forward. He just don't. I don't think that'll come in time. Either you have the skill set and mind for the game or you don't. Some will say I'm over reacting to one bad game for him where he got in foul trouble early but look at his body of work so far. I don't see him getting much better than he is...

If he were to be playing a hybrid TE position on the other side of Fant for the next couple of years they could really do some damage and give Stanley some nice big targets to work with. Something to think about.
Click to expand...

I think he could. But I also think he can find a way to find a role and contribute in hoops, also. Athletic kid, but his offensive game doesn't look like it's progressed since last season, or, at least, we haven't seen it yet. I would love to see him take 10 ft jumpers. He seemed to be fine with those in PTL. He just needs to start taking them.

this is all i could find:
 
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I like his game. Some of you armchair coaches look at the PPG to decide if someone is good enough to play.

Well all I can say to you is....... LEARN THE GAME!
 
1hawkeye1 said:
I like his game. Some of you armchair coaches look at the PPG to decide if someone is good enough to play.

Well all I can say to you is....... LEARN THE GAME!
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I don't think it's just PPG. On the offensive end he seems to get in the way more often than not. The lack of a jump shot kills spacing when he runs around just inside the 3pt line and he hasn't really developed a post move to date. On the defensive end he doesn't really have the height to guard bigger post players since realistically he's 6'6.

Fran is the one who decides if someone is good enough to play, and to date he's been behind Cook & Uhl for forward minutes, and it looks like Pemsl will see more minutes than him going forward. If Jones wasn't hurt, who knows where Ahmad's minutes may be. Did I mention we bring in two more forwards next year?

Everyone on here keeps saying he needs to develop a jump shot so he can play the wing, which is most certainly true, unfortunately I don't think Ahmad will ever develop into much of a college shooter from what I've seen.

He can be a decent role player for us, and I'm not giving up on him improving. People are intrigued by his football abilities and he could probably be an all conference football player and certainly has NFL potential, much more so than he does in professional basketball. If basketball is Ahmad's passion, I can't blame him!

PS - Learn the Game!
 
I say give him this year to see how he develops. If there improvement, then we will have a better idea if he can make any money in basketball. But the NBA is out of the question, unless there is a sudden and immense change in his play. We would be talking foreign leagues. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

If Ahmad wants to make money post college professionally, I would say his best bet would be at Tight End or possibly WR. He certainly has the frame for it. Plus the obvious athletic ability. 6'7" 225lbs with that speed, agility and the hands? His combine numbers would look good if nothing else.

The biggest question would be - Can he Block??

One thing is for certain, he is at the right school to be a TE! If for some reason he wants to take the opportunity, then redshirting next year would be ideal to fine tune his game. Then be All-B1G his junior & senior seasons. ;)
 
How about red shirting after this year to work primarily on his offensive skills so he can make the transition to the wing the last 2 years? He has the raw athleticism to do it already. It's a shame the coaches did not talk to him about doing it this year with such a young team anyway.

JBo, Moss, Wagner, Cook, Best of (Pemsl/Kreiner/Garza) might have been a pretty good starting lineup next year if he could produce offensively next year. With Baer one of the first off the bench.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
How about red shirting after this year to work primarily on his offensive skills so he can make the transition to the wing the last 2 years? He has the raw athleticism to do it already. It's a shame the coaches did not talk to him about doing it this year with such a young team anyway.

JBo, Moss, Wagner, Cook, Best of (Pemsl/Kreiner/Garza) might have been a pretty good starting lineup next year if he could produce offensively next year. With Baer one of the first off the bench.
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I think he could use a RS season to either work in his shooting or football. Right now in hoops he's a rebound, which he is good at. But he isn't really consistent from the ft line and this is where he will get his scoring chances. Right now, you just hack him cuz he is more likely to miss 1 of 2 than make 2 of 2 from the line. He needs to be an offensive threat from some spot on the floor and right now he isn't, at all.
 
1hawkeye1 said:
I like his game. Some of you armchair coaches look at the PPG to decide if someone is good enough to play.

Well all I can say to you is....... LEARN THE GAME!
Click to expand...
Sarcasm? The thing is I like his game too at least the potential of it. There's always a spot on a team for a guy like him to come off the bench and rebound and hustle. But the bottom line is his ceiling in basketball isn't very high. But what he could do on the football field could set himself up for life...
 
Well I must say that game he showed a lot of life and found himself in the right place more often to collect passes and finish. It was fun to see him use his athleticism. He'll always have a role on this team it's just too bad he can't shoot free throws or outside 10 feet with any confidence. He passed up shots (like Uhl is starting to do which I don't like but that's for another thread) I still think he'd be a better football player then basketball player but he did show improvement against ND.
 
I wonder if finishing around the rim is a mental thing right now or if he just doesn't have the talent it takes to finish. If it's the former, he could end up really good if he gets his head straight. If it's the latter, he will be a good role player.
 
Wagner (IMO) was one of the more consistent players in the PTL this summer. I think people have buried him a lil too quickly for this coming season. IMO, he'll play a huge roll
 
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