Chauncey Wiggins reveals key to his recent success

Sophomore Clemson forward Chauncey Wiggins is playing the best basketball of his Tiger career lately, and after the team’s latest win, he shared why.

Wiggins didn’t even manage to play 10 minutes per game as a rookie last season and averaged just 2.4 points per contest on a 2022-23 club that narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament. This year, Wiggins started out playing more but the production just wasn’t totally there. In the last few games, though, the sophomore has exploded.

In Clemson’s last three games — wins over Pittsburgh, TCU and South Carolina — Wiggins has averaged 11.3 points a game, is shooting over five three pointers per game and has played 24, 27 and 31 minutes in the contests. The second-year leap is officially real, and according to the man himself, it all goes back to practice.

“I would just say, back to like the confidence thing, just getting more shots up before practice, after practice,” said Wiggins of his impressive run after one of the victorites.

“Because with me, it’s just really, like, I’m more of a preparing guy. I just need to prepare myself for the big games that we have and I need to just help my team win. So I just try to work on the little things, like ball-handling, shooting of course, and just helping my team win.”

That extra work for Wiggins is certainly paying off, and he’s seizing his opportunity as part of the rotation for a Clemson team that’s undefeated and ranked in the top-15 of the AP Poll.

Plus, he’s getting some extra run in game action right now thanks to injuries to more veteran Tiger players. Both reserve guard Alex Hemenway and transfer forward Jack Clark are out and will be out until Christmas, and Clark’s absence the last three games has directly led to more minutes for the younger Wiggins.

As part of that same press conference, head coach Brad Brownell actually gave the latest on Clark, revealing that there have been some unforeseen obstacles in his recovery.

“Jack’s been a little more frustrating and and it feels like he took a couple steps forward for a while, and then just, maybe a step or two back and just haven’t been able to get him to where he really feels comfortable.”

Ideally, Jack Clark can get back to full strength and finally help this Tiger team out down low. But even if he continues to be out, at least Brownell knows he has another piece in the front-court emerging in Chauncey Wiggins.