Wiggins takes lead for Chanticleers in quest for third straight title

It seems so long ago now, but at one point this season the Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team looked to be heading way off course while stumbling to a 2-4 start in Big South play.

The Chanticleers had dropped back-to-back games to Liberty and Longwood and looked listless in the latter.

And in the aftermath of that humbling 15-point defeat on the road, with the Chants’ season at a crossroads, junior point guard Shivaughn Wiggins decided he needed to get his teammates’ attention.

So he invited everybody over to his place to rewatch the game, see who was playing with energy and who wasn’t, and sort out what the team could do to right its season.

That meeting only lasted about 30 minutes, but it worked. The players look back on that now as the turning point as they won the next seven games and 10 of their final 12 to finish just a game out of first place, while grabbing the No. 3 seed for the Big South tournament this weekend.

It was also a clear sign that the Chants’ leadership void had been filled, with Wiggins officially taking the torch from departed standout Warren Gillis.

“We really realized ... we just had to play more as a team and have more communication. He was the person who organized the whole thing, we all went to his house,” junior guard Colton Ray-St Cyr recalled. “He talked to us about how we had to gel, and I’m pretty sure that was probably the turning point as far as trusting each other. That built a lot of trust and we basically talked about [how] we [aren’t] going to win this tournament by ourselves. He made that point.”

Back when Wiggins arrived as a transfer from Mount St. Mary’s, where he was named the Northeast Conference’s 2012-13 Rookie of the Year in his only season there, Chants coach Cliff Ellis heaped praise on the 5-foot-11 point guard before he ever played a game for Coastal Carolina.

Ellis knew then that Wiggins was going to be a steadying force for the offense, but as the Chants now vie for their third straight Big South tournament championship, it’s clear he’s become even more for the program.

“He’s just all-out. He just competes and he knows what to do. I really lean on him a lot,” Ellis said this week. “And I really have always done this when you’ve got a leader like that – Warren Gillis was the same way – ‘What do you think?’ If he says, ‘Well, what do you think?’, I know I need to voice my [opinion]. But if he says, ‘Hey, I think we need this,’ then I go with those guys. ... His leadership, I just totally trust him.”

It’s an intangible quality so often referenced in sports and many times forced, but it’s been plain to see for anyone watching this Coastal Carolina team this season that Wiggins’ value extends well beyond the 13.1 points per game he averages or the 96 assists he’s tallied.

Take the regular-season finale last Saturday at UNC Asheville, for instance. As the Chants saw a 20-point lead early in the second half get whittled down to one, Wiggins took over as the focal point offensively while scoring 11 of the Chants’ final 15 points to help secure an 81-79 win.

“Just his passion and his will to win, he wants to win really bad and he shows that,” senior forward Tristian Curtis said. “He’s an example of it, he takes the team on his back and we all just go along for the ride and we just do the best we can to help him out. Everyone has their role, but Shivaughn, his will to win and you see how he plays, it makes you want to play harder.”

This has become his team now, and this weekend becomes his moment to leave a mark as Coastal Carolina begins its postseason push Friday night with a quarterfinals matchup against either No. 6-seed Gardner-Webb or No. 11 Campbell, the tournament host.

Gillis, the Chants’ veteran leader the last two seasons, helped deliver the program to its first two NCAA tournament appearances since 1991 and 1993. His legacy within the program is indelible for his role in returning the program to the national stage.

And knowing that Coastal Carolina would have to replace more than just Gillis’ scoring and crunch-time savvy, Wiggins says he took it upon himself to fill that void while taking a few tips along the way from his former teammate.

“Last year I was an underclassman playing under Warren and Josh [Cameron]. Warren really taught me how to be a leader – when times get bad, don’t get too down; when times get good, don’t get too up,” Wiggins said. “I think Warren helped me out becoming a leader a lot. We needed someone to be vocal for the team, get guys up and get guys in the right spots and make the plays.”

Or, as was the case after that 2-4 start to conference play, settle everyone down and regroup.

“A lot of guys got down because a lot of people were saying we weren’t going to be as good this year. We went 2-4 and everybody started freaking out. I told everybody, ‘Be calm, you never know,’” Wiggins recalled of that pivotal point.

“After the Longwood game, they came to my house, we watched film on the game and ever since then we’ve kind of been clicking a lot better. We said, ‘Look, we need to have a reality check. We’re not just going to go downhill like that.’ Everybody was there at the meeting and it helped out a lot, I think.”

It was also no coincidence that as the Chants turned it up the rest of the way with that seven-game winning streak and those 10 wins over the final 12 games, Wiggins raised his game as well.

He’s averaged 17.7 points over the last 10 games, his 32.7 minutes per game for the season is a team-high and his 40 steals are nearly double that of any other Chant.

“He’s just a warrior. I can’t even put it into words,” Ray-St Cyr said. “He really gets us going, he’s the heart defensively, he’s definitely the catalyst for that, offensively he gets us in our positions. He knows what to say to get everyone motivated.”

Ellis was vocal earlier this week in his disappointment that Wiggins only got honorable-mention All-Big South recognition.

But Wiggins will get his chance to leave his mark on the conference this weekend and his coach is confident he’ll be ready for the stage.

“He’s competitive, sometimes I wish he would channel it in a little bit because he gets frustrated if a call doesn’t go right. I don’t want them to stick it to him with another whistle because he’s upset because I know how that can be, but he’s so competitive and I love that in him,” Ellis said.

The Chants loved Wiggins back when he was a prospect out of North Mecklenburg (N.C.) High School outside Charlotte, as well, but they didn’t have a scholarship to offer him at the time so the point guard headed north to Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland.

Fortunately for the program, though, he found his way back despite averaging 9.6 points per game as a freshman there.

“Actually Coastal recruited me out of high school a little bit. I think Kierre [Greenwood] was still here and they didn’t have an extra scholarship for me,” Wiggins said. “This was the school I wanted to come to out of high school, so when I got my release at the Mount, I was open for recruiting, but I knew I wanted to come to Coastal if they had an open spot for me. I knew that’s where I wanted to be.

“Everything pretty much just worked out. I think that was the best move I ever could have made.”

And, as it has proven, a pretty significant one for the Chants as well.

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 7:46 PM with the headline "Wiggins takes lead for Chanticleers in quest for third straight title."