DAYTON, OHIO — Kevin Tiggs had every reason to be angry at the world.

He grew up in one of the poorest sections of Flint, Mich. His father, now deceased, left the family when Tiggs was a child, and his mother became ill and died at age 34 when he was a junior in high school.

Then, he was ineligible to play basketball as a senior at Flint Northern High School and worked for a year at a GM plant, wrapping and packing car bumpers.

So how come the senior forward for East Tennessee State is always smiling?

"He's the most incredible kid I've ever been around," ETSU coach Murry Bartow said. "He never has a bad day. We could practice at 4 in the morning, and he's going to have the biggest smile on his face you've ever seen."

Top-seeded Pitt (28-4) will meet Tiggs and No. 16 seeded ETSU (23-10) at about 2:55 p.m. today in an East Region first-round game at UD Arena.

Tiggs, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound forward, emerged from that troubled background to become the leading scorer in the Atlantic Sun (21.5 points per game scoring average) and the MVP of the conference tournament.

"He could play almost anywhere in the country," Bartow said.

Tiggs has made it to the NCAA Tournament despite playing less than one year of organized basketball before college. He wouldn't be playing Division I hoops at all if not for a chance encounter at a Flint junior college.

Tiggs was a street-ball legend in Flint, never playing in a game with uniforms, a coach or referees.

Finally, as a junior at Flint Northern, he was convinced to come out for the team. But then his mother, Zina, became seriously ill. He drifted away from the game he loved, skipping practices.

"I was going to quit," said Tiggs, who keeps a photo of his mom on the wall above his bed at home. "But friends and family told me (my mom) wouldn't have wanted me to stop playing, so I went back."

Tiggs returned and averaged "maybe five points a game" as a junior. He didn't play organized basketball for the next two years and was enrolled at Mott Community College in Flint when MCC coach Steve Schmidt spotted him during an open gym.

"He came up to me and said if you keep on working, you might be able to play for the team," Tiggs said. "I kept coming back, and the next thing I know, I was on the team."

In his second season at MCC, Tiggs was named National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Player of the Year, leading the Bears (35-3) to the national D-II juco championship.

Tiggs visited East Tennessee State and clicked with Bartow and his players. He transferred to the Johnson City, Tenn., school and averaged 14.6 points per game last season before emerging as the nation's 16th-leading scorer this season.

"He's just a phenomenal kid," Bartow said. "He's got everything in the world to be unhappy about — mom and dad both passed away.

"He's just an incredible kid and an awfully good player."

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