Final to leave impact on both teams’ legacies

SAN ANTONIO — As a rambunctious tween growing up in Germany, Moritz Wagner was granted the power to change his identity. It would not be the last time.

Like his internet-immersed young Berlin classmates, Wagner wanted his own Facebook page. But his mother worried about child privacy, and she granted her permission with a condition — he could not use his real surname.

So Wagner did a little borrowing from a Harry Potter character, and Moritz Weasley — the fictional moniker the Michigan basketball standout uses on all of his social media accounts today — was born.

“I made up a name that everyone would know,” Wagner said.

Monday night at the Alamodome, he can do it again.

By the time Michigan and Villanova settle the question of who will be this season’s champion of college basketball, at least one of the players who take the elevated floor will have conjured a new identity.

Someone will make a shot a fan base will never forget. Someone will make a pass or a steal that will be mentioned in his obituary. Someone will walk into the dome as a relatively unknown college kid, and emerge from it as a Final Four legend.

They might not be inventing a new name out of thin air exactly like Wagner once did. But they will create a new image that could last forever, even if some of them would prefer not to dwell on the magnitude of the moment.

“You’re not thinking about 30 years from now, talking to your grandkids,” Villanova guard Phil Booth said, laughing.

Someone’s grandkids will hear about it, though. Both of the programs involved in Monday’s epic showdown are aware of this.

Generations of Michigan basketball greats have been seeking another national title since the last time the Wolverines won one in 1989. The “Fab Five,” one of the most magnetic and memorable college teams in college history, rue their missed chances in the early 1990s. Current coach John Beilein — a man universally respected in his field and admired for accomplishing almost everything a college coach can — gets asked about coming up short in Michigan’s title game appearance five years ago in Dallas.

His legacy will change if he wins, and for evidence of that all he has to do is look down the sideline to his coaching adversary Monday. Villanova’s Jay Wright led the Wildcats to a national title in 2016, and his life has not been the same.

“People look at you differently after you’ve won it,” Wright said.

Some of Villanova’s players from that championship team remain, but each of them retains the power to change his own identity, too. Two years ago, Booth and Jalen Brunson were freshmen on a supporting cast. Now they are integral pieces of perhaps the most finely tuned offensive engine in the sport.

Brunson, the Wildcats’ unquestioned leader, was named the national player of the year last week. Booth is one of five Villanova starters who can make jump shots from all over the floor, including beyond the arc, where the Wildcats set a Final Four record with 18 3pointers in Saturday’s rout of Kansas.

And just because they were part of a title team two years ago does not make them any less eager to seize tonight’s moment.

“It’s a new group, new leaders, new roles,” Brunson said. “But it’s the same mission.”

Monday’s game provides an opportunity, as well, for college basketball as a whole. This is the final day of what has been perhaps the most tumultuous year the sport has endured, with an FBI investigation into alleged illegal payments from agents to recruits leading to the indictment of multiple assistant coaches on corruption charges.

But for one night, at least, college basketball can showcase its best. There is not a more entertaining team in the country than Villanova, whose ball-sharing and shooting make it unique in a sport that often slogs to a crawl.

And there are few personalities more endearing than Wagner, the 6-11 Michigan forward who delivered a performance for the ages in Saturday’s victory over Loyola-Chicago.

Back in his days growing up in Germany, Wagner became enamored with college basketball while staying up until 3 a.m. to watch NCAA Tournament games on his computer.

“I don’t think people here (in America) have the imagination of how unique it is,” Wagner said. “Where I’m from, there’s nothing like that.”

Monday night, he can do his part to remind everyone. And he can change his name all over again.