Wichita State guard Nick Wiggins may be the only player who’s forced to answer questions about his kid brother at the Final Four this weekend in Atlanta. That’s what happens when your younger sibling is the top high school basketball player in the country and the projected number one overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft.
Andrew Wiggins is still uncommitted, but he is widely reported to be down to Florida State, Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina. For many basketball fans Kentucky is the sexiest choice amongst the four schools (the world of college basketball is probably the only place where “sexy” applies to Kentucky) given that the Wildcats already have the top-ranked recruiting class in the country.
However, Kentucky’s success on the recruiting trail has Nick Wiggins a little concerned about whether Lexington is the right place for his brother (RealGM.com via The Louisville Courier-Journal):
“It’s all about combinations of players you put on the floor and how players feel about playing with each other, playing a team game,” Nick Wiggins said. “And I feel like they got a couple kids coming (back), they got seven or eight dudes that are already signed to come in off the (McDonald’s) All-America team, and I don’t feel like it would be the best fit for him to make his own legacy. But in the end, he’s going to make the best decision for him.”
Nick Wiggins added that he believes his parents would prefer for Andrew to go to Florida State. That corroborates what a Canadian journalist told me last week at the McDonald’s All-American Game in Chicago. Parents exercising influence over their child’s college decision. It happens to junior varsity all-stars and McDonald’s All-Americans alike.
Even if he does end up being a “one and done”, Wiggins only gets to go to college once. Winning a championship or building a college basketball legacy probably shouldn’t be his primary concern. Instead, he should go wherever he feels like he can enjoy his limited college experience the most. If he decides that Kentucky is that place, it doesn’t take anything away from his ability or say anything about his character.
Hopefully Andrew Wiggins will be able to drown out all of the noise and make his decision without worrying about pleasing anyone but himself.