by Bill DiFilippo / @bflip33
It’s not every day that a freshman gets on the cover of Sports Illustrated before the college hoops season even begins. To be fair, it’s also not every day that there’s a freshman as good as Kansas Jayhawks star Andrew Wiggins.
The nation’s top college and pro prospect graces the newest issue of SI, which will feature a story on him by Luke Winn. The cover features Wiggins, Wilt Chamberlain and Danny Manning, and the cover reads “The Freshman: From Wilt…To Manning…To Wiggins. A Torch Is Passed At Kansas.”
From SI.com:
Winn compares Wiggins to former Jayhawk greats Wilt Chamberlain and Danny Manning. “The notion of what Andrew Wiggins could be, if he can cultivate a relentlessness to pair with his talent, is why he is being received differently — even at a school that’s won nine straight regular-season Big 12 titles and has two other potential first-rounders in guard Wayne Selden and center Joel Embiid,” writes Winn. “Even in a college town that’s seen this already, twice.”
In fact, Kansas coach Bill Self told the freshman star when he arrived on campus in June that, “if you handle this right, you could potentially have everything you ever dreamed of and go down as one of the most loved athletes to ever come through this university.”
If Wiggins is as good as advertised, and we have no reason to think he isn’t, this probably won’t be the last time he appears on the cover of SI.
