May 18, 2013
College basketball’s highest ranked recruit made his announcement this week. To the surprise of many Andrew Wiggins, a prospect that many have suggested is the best high school basketball player since LeBron James, has committed to the Kansas Jayhawks.
There were general expectations that Wiggins would join the top recruiting class in the country. John Calipari has put together another remarkable class in Kentucky and Wiggins joining that group would have made it arguably the best recruiting class in the history of college basketball. However, Wiggins has decided to go a different route.
It’s obvious to state that Wiggins has hardly turned down Kentucky for nothing. He was also heavily pursued by the Florida State Seminoles for example, and he didn’t elect to go that route. Instead he is joining one of the top coaches in the country, Bill Self, and joining a basketball program that is a perennial national title contender and pretty much always a contender. The Jayhawks 2013 recruiting class is a top 10 class in the country as well by the way.
It has become common place in basketball for star players to aim to play together. It regularly happens when it comes to recruiting classes with teams loading up with two or three high school stars familiar with each other. Calipari has become an artist at engineering those situations as well. It is emulated in the NBA as well with James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh all joined each other in Miami Heat. Meanwhile, there is speculation that Dwight Howard and Chris Paul may aim to play with each other as NBA free agents this season.
Wiggins will know full well that the pressure is on him. Other players have been announced as the ‘best player since James’ and have disappeared into anonymity. He also has the pressure of being the best Canadian player since Steve Nash. The pressure could hardly be higher.
However, by heading to Kansas, he has put himself with a second tier contender, which is obviously beneficial in terms of pressure. He will also have the opportunity to establish himself as ‘the man’ with a team. That may be a bigger challenge, but it is ultimately a crucial element in his development as a basketball player.
All signs point towards Wiggins becoming a top level talent not both this season at college level and eventually in the NBA.
Assuming everything goes to plan, Wiggins will be a high draft pick in next year’s NBA draft. He has made a good start to that process with the selection of Kansas.
Based upon the low profile that Wiggins likes to keep; it seems that he will be happy just to get on with playing basketball and building towards a successful career.
