A shorter shot clock will mean a quicker tempo next season for the UAA men's basketball team, which Tuesday announced the addition of a Division I transfer who could help the Seawolves push the pace.
Sekou "Suki" Wiggs, a 6-foot-4 junior guard, will come to Anchorage from the University of Idaho, where he averaged 11.5 points per game and racked up 81 assists as a starter in 29 games last season.
Wiggs left the team shortly after the season ended, saying he hoped to find a team more suited to his fast-paced style of play.
"I feel like Idaho is a great place but as far as playing to my strengths as a player which is playing fast, up-and-down and being athletic, I felt like it wasn't the right fit for me to do that," Wiggs told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News in late March. "I got to Idaho and we played a lot of sets and a lot of motion so you can't really break out of the offense to do what you need to do."
Though UAA has tended toward set plays in recent history, coach Rusty Osborne said the intent is to field a team built for speed now that the NCAA has lowered the shot clock from 35 seconds to 30, giving teams five fewer ticks of the clock per possession to get off a shot.
"With the advent of the (lower) shot clock, one of the things we want to do is push the pace a little more," Osborne said. "I think we've added pieces that have that ability to run.
"We'll play a little more motion offense, pushing the pace, and not running as many set plays as we probably have in the past. That was something we were looking to do as we started working on the recruiting class."
Wiggs is one of six recruits to sign letters of intent with UAA. That group, which includes only one freshman, will take the place of seven players gone from last season's 16-13 team -- four who were seniors last season and three others who left the program.
Opting to leave were Kalidou Diouf, a 6-9 post who averaged 10.4 points and a team-high 5.4 rebounds as a freshman; Dom Hunter, a 6-0 guard who averaged 13.3 points; and Kevin Bowman, a 6-1 walk-on guard.
Diouf transferred to Division II Cal Baptist and Bowman decided to quit college basketball and enroll at Arizona State, Osborne said. Hunter said on Instagram that he's headed to Division II Texas-Permian Basin.
Besides Wiggs, the newcomers include four junior transfers, all of them coming from junior colleges, and a freshman from Australia. The transfers includes 6-9 junior Tayler Thompson, 6-6 Corey Hammell, 6-3 Spencer Svejcar and 6-1 Diante Mitchell; the freshman is 6-9 Curtis Ryan.
"We've played small and we've played young in the last few years," Osborne said. "To have an experienced group is something we're really looking forward to.
"We've added talent, experience, maturity and toughness."
Osborne said Wiggs drew interest from some Division I programs, but picked UAA because NCAA rules will allow him to play immediately at the Division II level but would require him to sit out a season at the Division I level.
Wiggs is from Seattle and UAA has known about him all along, Osborne said. "Even though he's leaving Idaho we couldn't find one person to say bad things about him." he said.
He's versatile and dynamic, Osborne said. As a freshman, he averaged 9.9 points, shot 46.9 percent from the field and was CollegeHoopsDaily.com's Sixth Man of the Year in the Western Athletic Conference.
"He's a high-level athlete," Osborne said. "Talking to people who coached against him, he has the ability of someone who could play in the Pac 12.
"… He's a different player than we've had in the past. We've had a lot of shooters and he has the ability to attack the lane and attack the basket. It'll be hard for (defenders) to stand out there by our shooters."
Osborne said one or two more players are expected to be added to the roster.
"I think we've added some good kids," he said. "We're bigger but more athletic."
Reach Beth Bragg at 257-4335 or bbragg@alaskadispatch.com.