LUBBOCK, Texas — It's a special time for the Three Rivers women's basketball program as the team has gone undefeated in the regular season and earned a trip to the NJCAA National Tournament in consecutive seasons. At the helm for both of those years has been Alex Wiggs, who was promoted to head coach prior to the 2020-21 season.
"It's definitely not how I expected my first two years as a head coach would pan out," Wiggs said. "Taking over during the pandemic along with being 52-1 in those two years is a coach's dream. A lot of that I can attribute to the people around me like coach (Marissa) Webb, managers and the athletic trainer to keep the girls at the top of their game."
Prior to taking the head coaching job, Wiggs was an assistant coach under Jeff Walk for five years. Walk amassed a record of 215-150 from 2009-20. Prior to joining the staff at Three Rivers, Wiggs was an assistant coach at Lincoln University and Moberly Area.
"Probably the biggest thing over the past couple of years for me is to delegate tasks and jobs to different people," Wiggs said. "Coming from the assistant role, you make sure everything is taken care of as the head coach."
Since taking the role of head coach, the Raiders have only lost once and that was in the final four of last year's national tournament to eventual champion Northwest Florida State.
That’s a .981 winning percentage heading into a second NJCAA National Tournament. The last losing season for the Raiders was back in 2016.
"I've been asked a lot how we've been able to turn it around the last two years," Wiggs said. "It comes down to having good players that know their roles and buys into the system that it's a team effort and people within the program that do a lot of the behind the scenes work.
“I’m very fortunate to be surrounded by people that are the make up of a successful program like ours and loves Lady Raiders basketball."
This is Wiggs' third year in four coming to Lubbock as the Raiders made it to the national tournament as the 24th seed in 2019, losing to Jones 88-84 in the first round.
"The more times that you do it, the more it feels normal," Wiggs said. "We're more prepared this year and know what to expect day in and day out."
In the first couple of days this year in Lubbock, Wiggs has dubbed it "home away from home."
The top-seeded Raiders will be in action at 2 p.m. Thursday when they play the winner of the first-round game between No.16 Chipola (Fla.) and No. 17 Tyler (Texas). Fans can stream all of the action online at www.njcaa.com/network with a $30 tournament package.
Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic