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[Eye Cue DA COLI GAWD]

TrueHoop Presents: The way of Andrew Wiggins

Andrew Wiggins hit his first 3, then his second, and his coach knew right away what kind of night it would be.

It was Feb. 7, 2013, inside the gym at Marietta College in Ohio, and all Rob Fulford could do was stand and watch. For two years, Fulford, the Huntington Prep coach, had seen his star player perform any number of breathtaking feats -- plays in games or practices that left him shaking his head and looking toward his staff in disbelief. But this night was different.

Usually content to take over a game only when it was required of him, Wiggins was slashing to the hoop and sinking shots from the outside. He was rebounding and swatting balls near the rim. He was locked in like never before.

What had gotten into him?

The answer could be found hours before tip-off, when Sports Illustrated published an article placing the young basketball stars from Canada under a microscope. Included among them was Wiggins, the crown jewel of the growing crop of ballers from the north -- a long and lean 6-foot-8 wing born in Toronto and inspired during the age ofVince Carter's Raptors. Wiggins had become a local star -- and a YouTube sensation -- before traveling to West Virginia to play high school ball at Huntington Prep, a renowned basketball factory.

When the article came out, Grant Traylor, who covered the team for the Herald-Dispatch, was enjoying his day off. But it would not last. He texted Fulford about the story, and the coach replied that Traylor might want to show up for that night's game.

"Trust me," Fulford wrote.

If there was one criticism about Wiggins' game at the time, it was that he lacked a certain killer instinct. He played hard and he played smart, but some observers wondered if he had it in him to, just once, rip out an opponent's heart.

His coach knew otherwise. Before the game, Fulford tweeted he had a "strange feeling" Wiggins would go for 50 points that night. "Just a hunch," he wrote.

Fulford missed the mark. Wiggins, a senior at the time, scored 57 against Marietta College's junior varsity team, connecting on 24 of 28 shots from the field. He also grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked four shots. Huntington Prep won 111-59.

"I think that was the first time somebody had publicly called him out. That was just his response, like: 'Hey, kiss my ass. Here's 57 for ya.'"

Rob Fulford
Fulford compares Wiggins' performance withMichael Jordan's famous "shrug game" against Portland during the 1992 NBA Finals, because even Wiggins couldn't believe some of the shots he was making. "I think that was the first time somebody had publicly called him out," Fulford says. "That was just his response, like: 'Hey, kiss my ass. Here's 57 for ya.'"

The press rushed to Wiggins afterward, desperate for a juicy quote confirming the performance was his ultimate act of revenge. But Wiggins would not puff out his chest. "I thought I responded well," he told reporters.

Wiggins chose to let his game speak for him, just like he does today, refusing to boast when given the opportunity even as the Timberwolves' franchise player, the NBA's reigning rookie of the year and the 20-year-old charged with lifting Canada's national team to prominence.

"We used to make a joke saying, 'Goddang, Andrew, quit being so nice,'" says Bill Self, who coached Wiggins at Kansas. "He said: 'You know, people in Canada are polite. What's wrong with being polite?'