Wiggins Led Fresno State To Five Straight NCAA Tournaments
Adrian Wiggins
OXFORD, Miss. – After five straight years of NCAA Tournament appearances and WAC Championships at Fresno State, Adrian Wiggins has established himself as one of the nation’s rising women’s basketball coaches, and Ole Miss is pleased to announce him as the next coach of the Rebels.
Wiggins will be formally introduced at a Wednesday press conference, and fans can watch the event live at 1 p.m. CT in a free webcast on OleMissSports.com’s RebelVision.
“I want to thank Ole Miss for the opportunity to lead this storied program,” said Wiggins. “This is a team that has been to 10 Sweet Sixteens and five Elite Eights, and I am excited to take on the challenge of returning the Rebels to that level. I am proud of what we accomplished at Fresno, and I look forward to reaching even greater heights in Oxford.”
Ole Miss Executive Associate Athletics Director Lynnette Johnson chaired the search committee and said Wiggins’ track record as a proven winner was unmatched.
“I want to thank the committee for their diligent work in this process,” said Johnson, who was joined in the search by Don Cole, Provost/Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and Michael Thompson, Senior Associate AD. “We received great interest for this position, and that is a tribute to the rich tradition of women’s basketball we have established here at Ole Miss.
“We had an outstanding pool of candidates, but Adrian’s experience and accomplishments were simply unparalleled. What he achieved at Fresno State is spectacular, and we look forward to watching him return Ole Miss back among the nation’s elite programs.”
Ross Bjork, who was named the Rebels’ next athletics director last week, was involved in interviewing the finalists.
“Adrian has shown the ability to win at a high level on and off the court, winning 73 percent of his games while achieving great success academically and in the community,” Bjork said. “He struck me with his unique story of not taking anything for granted. He has the type of personality people gravitate towards, and I love the passion he has for those things we hold most important in college athletics.”
Fresno State made their fifth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance and recorded at least 20 wins for the sixth consecutive season under Wiggins in 2011-12. While registering a program-best 28 wins, the Bulldogs claimed a piece of the Western Athletic Conference regular-season title for the fifth straight year and the WAC tournament title for the fourth time in five seasons.
In his seven-plus seasons as head coach, the two-time WAC Coach of the Year has amassed a 175-66 overall record and 92-18 record in WAC games. He is the only Fresno State coach in the 45-year history to not have a losing season, while averaging 25 wins per season.
Since his first full season as head coach in 2005-06, the Bulldogs boasted the most wins in the WAC (168). Under Wiggins, the Bulldogs had the program’s four most successful seasons in school history and seemed to improve upon each campaign the following year.
In 2010-11, Wiggins and the Bulldogs went 25-8 overall and 14-2 in conference action. Fresno State led the country in three-pointers per game with 9.8, the second time in three years that the Bulldogs had led the country in a three-point stat.
The 2009-10 Bulldogs won a then-school record 27 games (27-7) and became the first WAC school to go undefeated in conference play (16-0) since Louisiana Tech in 2002-03. It was also the first-time a Fresno State team had gone undefeated in conference play.
Fresno State won its third straight WAC regular season championship in 2010 and advanced to the conference tournament title game for the third straight year. Wiggins was named the 2010 WBCA Region 7 Coach of the Year and was one of eight finalists for National Coach of the Year honors.
Fresno State enjoyed a magical season in 2008-09 when the team repeated as WAC regular season and tournament champions, earning its second-straight berth in the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs’ 24-9 record tied a school record for most wins, set by Wiggins’ 2005-06 team.