So this is what all the fuss has been about ever since the player who was anointed the best prospect in the Class of 2013 when he signed with Kansas over Kentucky and Florida State in the spring of his senior year at Huntington W.Va. Prep. Maybe Wiggins isn’t LeBron, but he might be Kobe.
Wiggins, who has already publicly stated he will only stay in college for one year and has said he would love to leave with a national championship, has passed his first big test. “It was fun,” Wiggins said. “It was nerve wracking at first, you can ask Perry, I was sweating in the locker room. I was nervous. But the game tipped off, I played with confidence.”
Some 65 NBA scouts requested credentials to watch six elite freshmen– Wiggins, 7-0 center Joel Embid and guard Wayne Selden of Kansas, power forward Julius Randle and wing James Young of Kentucky and Parker– perform before a sellout crowd. All should be first round picks. The powerful 6-9, 248-pound Randle showed he belonged in the same class as Wiggins and Parker when he powered his way to 27 points and 13 rebounds during top-ranked Kentucky’s 78-74 loss to more experienced Michigan State team in the first game of the best regular season doubleheader in recent history.
Randle is a man child who is too strong for one man to guard once he gets the ball in the blocks. “We should have doubled him at half court,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.
Franchise freshmen are rapidly becoming a major story line in this college basketball season. Wiggins, Parker, Randle, 6-8 freshman Aaron Gordon of Arizona could be four of the first five picks in the draft, along with 6-6 guard Dante Exxum of Australia.
“People have made a lot about Andrew’s personality because he’s so mild-mannered… and things look easy to him,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “But he is competitive.”
All week long, Wiggins reportedly pleaded with Kansas coach Bill Self to guard Parker. But Self was concerned about foul trouble, and he never relented — until Wiggins decided to guard Parker on his own during the second half. “I didn’t put him on Jabari,” Self said. “He just went to guard him. And I think he caught a piece of his shot that possession, and I said, “Well, I guess he was probably right.”
Wiggins may need time and maturity to reach his full potential. But his individual heroics showed why Kansas could be an NCAA title contender. Four Kansas freshmen played major minutes. Ellis, the sophomore, put on a clinic in the post with 24 points.
They all figure to get better by March.
The opening 20 minutes of this heavyweight fight belonged to Parker. While Wiggins was limited to just 11 minutes, sitting after picking up his second foul, Parker went on a tear, draining four three-pointers, hitting leaners in the lane, and generally making life miserable for whatever Kansas player was designated to guard him. Ellis and Jamari Traylor tried to contain him, with little success. Parker was a matchup nightmare. But Wiggins, who picked up his fourth personal with 7:20 left, found a way to dictate the outcome, finally neutralizing Parker for good when Parker fouled out attempting to stop the dunk by Wiggins that gave Kansas a 87-81 lead with just a minute to play,
As Wiggins left the floor at the end of the game, he found Parker in the crowd on the floor. “You played good,” he acknowledged.
But Wiggins refused to turn a team triumph into a one-on-one matchup. “Our names on the jersey don’t say Parker and Wiggins, it says Kansas and Duke,” he said. “At the end of the day, one team is gonna win.”
