If Tuesday’s game between the Kansas and the Iona College taught us anything about Andrew Wiggins, it’s that he is indeed learning from the best. There will be nights this season where the Jayhawks absolutely need Wiggins to wear the Superman cape and carry them. On other evenings, his teammates should shoulder the load. To use the old sports adage, there’s no “I” in team. Even though the letter does appear twice in the name Wiggins, Canada’s wonderkid’s 13 points on nine shot attempts prove he’s willing to share the spotlight.
Last night, Wiggins’ two big men, Joel Embiid and Perry Ellis both played catalyst to keeping the team undefeated and not once did it the shining star seem unhappy. With an easy and obvious size advantage, playing to the teams strengths not only made sense, but kept the opponents at bay. However, there was an even bigger reason for Wiggs to take a back seat to one of his bigs. Last night, Joel Embiid’s father, Thomas, traveled to Lawrence, Kansas from Cameroon to see his son play basketball for the time. Not the first time in college, but the first time ever. Since there’s a good chance Embiid will be playing for a very long time to come, last night will be memorable for him and all in attendance.
Wiggins’ window of opportunity to wow us against team assembled with players who’s biggest ball moments will one day be a memory of the time they challenged him, will continue. In fact, his next game will be this Friday at home against Towson University, a school arguably smaller than Iona College. The safe bet is Kansas will finish that contest 4-0 on the season. The uncertainty? Which side of Andrew Wiggins will we get?