Brad Brownell gives expectations of growth for Chauncey Wiggins
Clemson will need some players to step up for next year’s team with several players leaving from their previous one. Chauncey Wiggins could be one of those people based on the goals for him from Brad Brownell.
Brownell discussed Wiggins’ development during a press conference earlier this month. For him to take the next step, the Tigers need Wiggins to continue to improve down low, which he showed signs of last season at 6’10.
“Yeah, just continue to get involved even more around the paint,” Brownell said. “He has got to rebound the ball better, continue to attack the basket.”
“He made strides, he made strides in that way,” noted Brownell. “We started to post him more and run some action for him. It’s just sometimes when guys are so big athletically that you want all these things.”
Wiggins just didn’t get to put everything on display last year as a sophomore because of the experience on the team at Clemson. They had plenty of scoring veterans, which is why they needed him to play more of a role than be in a feature.
“He was playing with a lot of other good players, right. I think one of the things that’s challenging is when you’re a young player on a really good team with older players? Like, the older players are going to be the guys – the Joe Girards, the Chase Hunters, the PJ Halls. They’re going to be the primary weapons,” said Brownell. “What our team needed last year was more rebounding and defense because we had a 1,500-point scorer, a 2,000-point scorer, a 1,000-point scorer.”
“While I think Chauncey probably would’ve scored more points than Jack (Clark) if he’d have played the same amount of minutes, Jack was a little bit better defender and rebounder, older. So Jack got more of the minutes there for a while,” Brownell explained.
Wiggins has appeared in 63 games for the Tigers, including all 36 last year with half of those being starts. In this second season of his, he averaged 5.4 points and 2.1 rebounds while shooting 44.2% overall.
As Wiggins becomes an upperclassman, though, he can take a more substantial spot for Clemson, if not be right there as a top player on the team. Brownell and the Tigers expect and will need that kind of improvement from him too as he heads into his junior season.
“Chauncey is more than ready to take the next step,” Brownell stated. “Next year? We’re going to need scoring. So he needs to be a 12-point, 14-point scorer for us. He’s going to have a ton of opportunities to get shots. We’re going to run a lot of plays for him. That kind of excitement, hopefully, will motivate him to have a great offseason.”
“I’m excited for him. I think it’s a fun time for a young man like that that you’ve been working with,” said Brownell. “He should be the next guy to kind of take another big step for us.”