Finding a Cornerstone: The Emergence of Ryan Anderson

This week, with the clock ticking down on the men’s basketball season at Boston College, it’s time to look back at this freshman-laden team and see what came out of a season that often seemed lost. As long as the Eagles ACC Tournament run lasts — and probably a few days after — I’ll be waxing poetic on what worked, what didn’t and what BC could do to improve next season. One day after elimination, the focus shifts to the good that came from this season. When talking about the good with this team, it all starts and ends with Ryan Anderson.

When the ACC announced its season-ending all-conference teams, Boston College was understandably lacking registration. Four conference wins and a basement finish don’t lead to many trips around the awards’ circuit. Where the Eagles did pick up their one nod was a surprise to absolutely nobody. Right up there along side 2012 lottery pick-if-he-wants-to-leave Austin Rivers as a unanimous nominee was Ryan Anderson on the ACC All-Freshman team. He was the first Eagle since Tyrese Rice to land on the team, emerging as a potential standard-bearer for this entire class — and program — for the next few years.

Ryan Anderson took control of the Eagles only after the performances of teammates like Patrick Heckmann fell off during the season (Photo Credit: Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

However, it wasn’t Anderson’s team when the season started. For the first month, the Eagles belonged to Patrick Heckmann. The most experienced creator on the roster, Heckmann thrived in an offense that had only the skeleton of the structure Steve Donahue would eventually impart. Frankly, they weren’t very good. Somewhere in the early hours of 2012, it ceased to belong to the German anymore. A binge of turnovers — including seven to go along with eight points against North Carolina — and a bout with mono saw Heckmann’s minutes decrease as he put up double-digit scoring numbers just once in the new year, an 11-point double-overtime effort against Rhode Island on January 2nd.

Dennis Clifford flirted with the team supremacy for a few games, putting up 15 points a piece in the Eagles back-to-back wins over Clemson and Virginia Tech. Then the oppossing big men got better and bigger and Clifford became a shell of the potential he showed in early January. Lonnie Jackson would catch fire from time to time but never looked like a go-to guy. Jordan Daniels even put his hat in the ring for a little while with a masterful 21-point performance in the upset of Florida State before succumbing to a rash of costly turnovers. All the while, Anderson lurked in the shadows, putting close to double-double numbers on the board on a near-nightly basis. At some point he just decided that everyone else had missed their chance. It was his team now.

While putting the team on his back didn’t lead to many wins for Boston College, Anderson took the helm as even he admitted that he and his teammates were worn down from their first time through the grind of the college season. Was it the case of a reluctant leader or a player truly coming into his own? Only Anderson knows for sure, but it is much more likely the latter. As opposed to Clifford and Daniels, Anderson’s success came not as a flash in the pan, but the culmination of a full season of development.

Despite putting up a double-double in the season opener against New Hampshire, Anderson looked like he was simply going through the motions early in the season. He looked slightly disinterest and didn’t seem to play with much, if any, fire inside. Maybe it was the realization that there are few times in college you can coast by without trying like he could in high school, but around the start of 2012 it appeared to click.

The three-pointers were less of the “well I’m here, might as well chuck it” variety. On the defensive glass he put his body into his man instead of just relying on instincts and athletic ability to pull in the rebound — a big reason the Eagles finished fourth in defensive rebounding during ACC play after getting killed in the early season. Most importantly, you could see him visibly more intense on the court. In the second half of the ACC schedule he went from passive enigma to ferocious two-way monster for the Eagles.

Starting with the upset of Florida State on Feb. 8, Ryan Anderson has been downright unstoppable for Boston College (Photo Credit: US Presswire)

Starting with the upset of Florida State, Anderson went on a tear. Six of the final eight games saw the former Mr. Basketball in California shoot 50 percent or above from the field. A 2-of-9 game against Miami — his only single-digit scoring output of the final eight contests — aside, the days of hitting just 2-for-11 from the field were gone. He had risen his game to reach a high-ACC level. Suddenly, when the Eagles needed a bucket, Anderson would find the ball in his hands.

Over the season, Anderson averaged 11.2 points points and 7.4 rebounds per game — good for the No. 20 and N0. 7 spots in the ACC rankings, respectively. Limit it to ACC games and they jump to 12.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. What if you just look final eight games of his freshman campaign, the time when he appeared to finally take the leap? From February 8th to the same day in March, Anderson put up 16.25 points per game to go along with 9.0 rebounds. If he averaged that over an entire season he would have finished at No. 6 on the ACC scoring list while moving up two spots in rebounding to No. 5 — passing ACC first-teamer Mike Scott of Virginia in the process.

An eight-game sample is not the be all and end all. It’s not necessarily an accurate indicator of how Anderson will fare next season, especially if defenses start to key on him game after game. It all depends on what he does over the summer. Will he work on refining his jumper? His back-to-the-basket game? How much will he bulk up? The key to it all comes down to what he sets his mind to. He was one of the few recruits in Donahue’s first true class whose talent level wasn’t called into question. If he decides he wants to assert himself like the player that tore up conference foes at the end of the season when he suits up next fall — even against teams like Holy Cross and UMass — he just might see his name on a different All-ACC list this time next season.