Tougher than the Test
December 16, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas
In return to court, Anderson showing more than just return to form
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
They played until they landed, and the results favored the more experienced player.
"Brad had the upper hand,'' Anderson conceded. "But me and Marc will get there."
Anderson's competitiveness in all facets of his life, extending even to a friendly game of cards with a teammate and friend, is an off shoot of his upbringing as a coach's kid. From shooting at a family Nerf hoop at home, to dribbling a ball at 2, he was competing well before entering kindergarten.
"I was just constantly playing," he said. "When I was in the second grade, I played up with the third graders. When I was in the third grade, I played up with the fourth graders.
"Constantly being that younger guy, I was finding ways to impact the game. When you're maybe not the most athletic guy, maybe not the strongest guy, I've just always had to do that."
Scott Anderson used to challenge his son to games of H-O-R-S-E in their driveway. Or maybe it was the other way around. As the years passed, there would be seemingly endless one-on-one matches in all but empty gyms wherever Scott was coaching, and Trevor was learning how to compete.
"My dad was my coach my whole life," he said. "My basketball IQ and smarts came from him."
Pops was a baller. "He was a chucker," Trevor teased. "He shot a lot."
And made a lot. Scott Anderson averaged better than 30 points as a senior and accounted for nearly 2,000 points in the mid- '80s at Auburndale High School which has a rich athletic tradition having produced a Major League pitcher (Jordan Zimmerman) and a Packers Hall of Famer (Mark Tauscher).
Scott is a coach's kid, too. He played for his dad, Tim Anderson, who won over 600 games during a HOF career spanning 40 years at Auburndale. After graduating from UW-Stevens Point, where he also lettered as a player, Scott Anderson joined the coaching fraternity and had a successful 28-year run.
At Stevens Point High School, he won three state championships and developed Division I talent like Sam and Joey Hauser, not to mention Trevor, who played four years under Scott's guidance and left SPASH as the all-time leading scorer with 2,360 points, one-upping his dad's prep total.
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Given this DNA backdrop – and the overall coaching influence of his grandfather and father – you can see where Trevor Anderson gets his competitiveness from. At a very early age, he was groomed to be a leader – a take-charge guy on the floor – and schooled on how to think like a point guard.
"To me, it's just making the right, smart play," he said of the job description. "Whether that's taking a shot that is needed, whether that's getting the ball inside, whether that's playing hard D and taking a charge. That's what you need out of your point guard – making those smart, tough decisions.
"I've always kind of let the game come to me. Whatever the smart basketball play is, I've kind of always made that. I don't really look at trying to score 30 or 40. I just think as a point guard you've got to be that leader and get the ball where it needs to be."
In Wisconsin's loss at Rutgers, the 22-year-old Anderson came off the bench and played a season-high 24 minutes. Sparking the offense with a couple of 3s, including one at the end of the first half that gave the Badgers their only lead of the game. He finished with 11 points and two assists.
Trevor Anderson at the BUZZER‼️🚨
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) December 12, 2019
Badgers lead at the break
Trev's got 6 points (2-2 3FG)#OnWisconsin » #Badgerspic.twitter.com/MBsgyepcsP
He also had a couple turnovers, which bugged him to no end. But, he still got a favorable review.
"I like what he brings from that position (point guard)," said head coach Greg Gard. "He doesn't back down. He's not bashful at anything; he's a fighter … that mentality. I need a little bit more of that from others and we'll work on trying to get it out of them."
On Saturday (Dec. 21), the Badgers will return to action against Milwaukee at the Kohl Center. For Micah Potter, the Ohio State transfer, it will mark his UW debut in an actual game. For Anderson, a redshirt junior, it will mark the one-year anniversary of undergoing ACL surgery on his right knee.
"Trevor is getting better," Gard said. "He's getting more comfortable with the leg."
UW trainer Henry Perez-Guerra has overseen Anderson's rehabilitation.
"He's a tough kid," he said. "Like any athlete, they're nervous when they start the rehab process. Each time you take a step, it's something new and it can cause discomfort."
It was late summer-early fall when Anderson started to come around and step it up. Besides citing his toughness, Perez-Guerra also confirmed, "He's quite a competitor."
He went on to say, "Any athlete that goes through something like this, there's always that mental challenge part of it, too. I think he's learning that everything can't be perfect every day.
But he added, "That's a credit to him that he always wants to be at his best."
Anderson has been down this path before. During his senior year of high school, he played the second half of the season with a slight labrum tear in his right hip.Â
To alleviate some of the discomfort, he made frequent visits to a chiropractor. More often than not, he was just required to tough-it-out in order to practice and play.
It all paid off. Stevens Point won a second straight D-1 title. He averaged 25 points and was named Mr. Basketball and Player of the Year in Wisconsin. That spring, he had surgery on his hip.
Right now, he's being challenged by some psychological barriers with his repaired knee.
"I definitely wake up and feel it," he said. "And that carries over to my brain just knowing that in my prior 13 years of basketball, whatever, I never really had knee pain.
"So, waking up for a shootaround, you've got to get it moving. Once you do, you don't feel it that much. But on certain moves, you still do.
"Mine was a jab step – that's how it tore. That's always in the back of your mind, something so simple as a jab step can end your season. You've got to get over it eventually."
Against New Mexico, he got beat defensively off the dribble going to his right.
"It sometimes feels like I'm stuck in mud," he said. "But you have to find ways. You can't make excuses because once you do it becomes more mental and you're thinking, 'I can't do it because of this or that.' No, you've got to find a way to do even if it doesn't feel good."
Patience has not been his strong suit.
"I've struggled with that for sure," Anderson said. "I've had meetings with our coaches; they can see some of the frustration on my face. The last couple of weeks, I've done a way better job with that."
But in November, he confided, "It was kind of consuming me. It was all I thought about. I'd go home and I'd just be ticked off that I couldn't move the same way. I wasn't hanging out with my roommates as much. I was kind of sitting in my room more. But I've definitely grown from that."
Assistant coaches Joe Krabbenhoft and Alando Tucker pulled him aside after one practice and Anderson recalled, "We talked for about an hour and half. It was all about perspective."
They both emphasized the importance of a positive mindset to which Anderson personally committed to "being ready and a great teammate and listener. Whatever they ask of me."
Before a back injury cut short Anderson's freshman season at Green Bay, he had started the first 20 games and was averaging 10 points, so he can be an offensive threat and not just a facilitator.
"It's kind of funny, but my whole life everybody has told me to shoot more," Anderson said. "At Green Bay, they even brought me in after the third game – I was shooting 50 percent from 2, 45 from 3 – and they were like, 'You need to shoot more.'
"I remember back to the state championship game my junior year, I didn't take a shot the whole first quarter. I just kind of let it come to me. Maybe I do need to be more aggressive. But I just take what the defense gives me. It's how I play."
Although he has been playing more lately, he knows that minutes are not guaranteed.
"It's tough to get into a rhythm," he said. "But right now, that's my role. Whether that's taking a charge, bringing energy, hitting an open shot, I've just got to maximize my role.
"When my time comes for a bigger role – when the knee feels maybe a little better and the stars align – I'll be ready to go."
Nobody can relate to Anderson's injury timeline more than former UW captain Josh Gasser who sat out the 2012-13 season after tearing the ACL in his left knee.
Gasser knows what Anderson is going through – just a year out from surgery – and he also knows what his competitiveness can mean to a team that may be lacking certain intangibles.
"He can bring stuff that we might be lacking in terms of a little fight, a little energy, a little juice – something to get the guys going right now," Gasser said.
"We've had teams here that weren't the biggest, fastest, strongest most skilled, but we found a way to out-tough and out-physical teams. Trevor can bring that and help the outlook of this team."
Maybe it's just in the cards.
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