Sports College in Canada

Andrew Wiggins has been touted as everything from a future NBA All-Star to the "Michael Jordan of Canada".

CSM /Landov

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The potential of Andrew Wiggins, the Canadian basketball phenom considered the best high school-aged player in the world, is layered in hyperbole.

Recruiting analyst Tom Konchalski says that Wiggins can be the "Michael Jordan of Canada." Former Canadian national team coach Leo Rautins says that Wiggins has the potential to be an NBA All-Star and, perhaps, someday battle for MVP. Steve Konchalski, Tom's brother and a long-time fixture with the Canadian national team, says that Wiggins can be the best player the country has ever produced.

Wiggins, a senior at Huntington (W.Va.) Prep, is choosing between Florida State, Kentucky, UNC and Kansas and is said to be leaning toward Florida State. The son of a former NBA player and a Canadian Olympic sprinter, no one will question the 6-foot-8 Wiggins' genes or athleticism.

But Wiggins must carry with him the burden of a country's basketball hopes, its legacy of underachieving players and a reputation for only playing hard when necessary.

"When the big games come, I show up, " Wiggins said. "I'm more than ready to play. When we play a team I know we're going to blow out or anything like that, I'm not as motivated."

In order for Wiggins to exploit his potential and live up to his No. 1 ranking, he must outrace a country's reputation for producing can't-miss prospects that miss.

And with Wiggins, there are warning signs. Wiggins has attended three schools in the past four years. His college recruitment is being run by his father, Mitchell, an unemployed former NBA guard best remembered for a two-year suspension for testing positive for cocaine. Andrew Wiggins' work ethic and motor have yet to catch up to his athleticism and raw ability. That leaves the question of whether he'll coast on talent to a solid NBA career or tap into his vast potential and emerge as an elite player and Canadian icon.

In the past few years, more highly-touted Canadians have fizzled than sizzled in the states, victims of bad advice, fly-by-night prep schools and a lack of preparation on and off the court.

"If you look at the failure list, it's mind boggling, " said Rautins, Canada's coach from 2005 to 2011. "Kids put in wrong situations. Kids academically put in bad situations. You see all these kids with potential, and it just went out the window. That was my fight, to change that. And sometimes I felt like I was peeing in the wind."

This winter, Tom Konchalski saw Wiggins miss a bank shot runner on the right side of the lane and dart across the paint to tip in his own miss with his left hand. When coaches break down Wiggins' game, they talk breathlessly about his second jump, the fast twitch leap that allows him to rebound immediately after he's landed.