The mark of a quality athletic team is their ability to respond to adversity.  For the College of Charleston men’s basketball team adversity struck within the first week of practice.  6-foot-7-inch, 180 pound junior forward Antwaine Wiggins tore his Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) during individual drills in practice.  

“It was so unexpected, it really knocked us all down” head coach Bobby Cremins said. 

Cremins called Wiggins the team’s best defender, and most popular for his shut down defense on former Davidson star, and current member of the Golden State Warriors of the NBA, Stephen Curry.  Offensively the Cougars loose 8.3 points, 3.9 rebounds along with 37 blocked shots, and 31 steals from Wiggins a season ago.

“It’s all part of the game” Cremins said, as he will look for players to step up and fill Wiggins’ role.  Junior Jeremy Simmons will move into the starting lineup but the most pressure might be on three underclassmen. Six-foot-8-inch sophomore forward Matt Sundberg respectively averaged 2.0 points in 6.6 minutes of playing time last year.  Cremins will expect Sundberg to take a more active role this year.  Competing with Sundberg for playing time will be two freshmen; six-foot-six-inch forward Willis Hall and six-foot-nine-inch center Rashad Wright.  

Wright averaged close to a double-double a game with 10.8 points and 8.2 rebounds a game at South Kent School in Connecticut.   Hall is out of Charlotte Christian where he averaged 15.6 points and 7.8 rebounds a game.  He also broke, Charlotte-Christian Alumnus, Stephen Curry’s school record of 1,440 career points.  Hall graduated with 1,545 points.  Coach Cremins expects both men play prominent roles. 

Coach said after the injury to Wiggins the whole team was down and he called a meeting to remind the team that they still had enough depth to be good.  “It took some time but we’ve regrouped and we’ve moved on,” Cremins said.  The benefit of having a coach with 28 years of coaching under his belt is that he knows how refocus a team and pull them through adverse situations.  But with a tough non conference schedule against Tennessee, Clemson and North Carolina it’s going to be a challenge.  

At the end of the day it’s going to be up to seasoned veterans like senior Tony White JR, and junior Andrew Goudelock to pull everyone together and ensure no one misses a beat.  

The first opportunity to catch the 2009 Cougars will be Tuesday, November 17 against Winthrop at the Carolina First Arena.

Side note:  Former Cougar standout Dontaye Draper has signed a contract with Denver Nuggets.  Draper, a 2008 graduate, was most recently with the Sydney Kings of the National Basketball League.  Draper got the call from the Nuggets for the second consecutive season after being cut in 2008, as always we wish Dontaye the best of luck.