Avery Anderson Progresses With Each Passing Day
STILLWATER – I’m going to start out by echoing something that Mike Boynton said in his postgame press conference following the 55-41 loss to West Virginia: It’s hard to appreciate things during a losing streak. Oklahoma State, while they beat Houston and Southeastern Louisiana, they’ve dropped five out of the last seven games dating back to the beginning of December.
After such a hot start to the season, it’s a tough stretch of basketball to stomach. Also, because they weren’t just losses, some of them were complete beatdowns. 80-61 to Wichita State in Stillwater, 86-66 to Minnesota at the BOK Center in Tulsa and 85-50 to Texas Tech in Lubbock.
While it was a 14-point loss to West Virginia, there were some bright moments that might be overshadowed because of the loss. The Pokes’ defensive performance was one of them. They held WVU to just 55 points and I don’t care what league you’re playing, if you hold a team to 55 points, you should win. They forced 19 WVU turnovers as well.
Something else that’s probably getting lost in the shuffle has been the progress of freshman point guard Avery Anderson III.
Over the course of the non-conference schedule, we saw a consistent number of minutes from Anderson, somewhere between 12 and 19 minutes a game, but we didn’t necessarily see a lot of production. But as the season’s wore on and we’ve now gotten into Big 12 play, that production is starting to become more visible.
“Avery Anderson’s progress, in my mind, has been pretty evident,” said head coach Mike Boynton. “He still has turnovers every now and then that make you scratch your head, but that’s part of the process with a freshman point guard. What I see in his ability, long term, is something I think everyone should be really excited about because he’s not going to continue to make those plays over time. And he’s as competitive as anybody I’ve ever coached, and he’s competitive in the right way. It’s not selfish, it’s not for him to look good, he wants to win. I think he’s got a bloody nose and a black eye; I think he took a couple of hits today, but that kid’s about the right things and he’s going to be a big part of what we do moving forward.”
He played just 15 minutes against Texas Tech, but he shot .500 from the field and scored a career-high nine points.
Fast forward a few days and he posted a career-high in minutes with 25, a career-high in field goals made with four, as well as field goals attempted with nine, and he posted a season-high three steals.
He’s one of the most athletic and shifty players on the roster and with that, we’ve seen how easy it’s been for him to get to the bucket. But due to his youth and inexperience against a bigger, faster, stronger and smarter opponent than he saw in high school, we saw a lot of turnovers and silly mistakes.
Granted, he still turned the ball over three times against Tech and WVU, but we’re starting to see smarter and more confident play from Anderson.
“I don’t want to belabor this because people don’t want to hear it, but I’m going to say it anyway: Avery is improving right in front of our eyes,” said coach Boynton. “It’s hard to appreciate it when you see glaring turnovers, which he still has as a freshman and when you lose. As a former point guard myself, I can see him maturing and see his decision making improving. The thing I admire most about him is he loves to compete. The more competitive things are, the more he relishes the opportunity to be out there. He’s going to help our team in the very near future even more as we move forward.”
That confidence stems from just taking more reps. More reps in practice and more reps in the games. It also comes from the senior leadership on the team.
“Just being in the gym every day with Cam,” Avery Anderson said. “Just in the morning, we getting it in every day. Just working on my game and knowing what I’ve got to do to be a good teammate and get this team [wins]. Also feel like my confidence is skyrocketing.”
Anderson’s next time out on the court will be this Saturday against a TCU team that’s off to a good start to the season. It’s also going to be in Fort Worth, a place and school that Anderson chose Oklahoma State over, despite being from the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
I think as the season wears on, we’re going to see more from Anderson, more confidence, better shot selection and we’ll see him start to become more of a leader.
