Kentucky Greats: #24, Derek Anderson

Although he only played two years at the University of Kentucky after transfering from Ohio State, Derek Anderson still displayed greatness on the court and was a flat out star. Anderson scored 674 points in his career, 337 in each season despite only playing half the year as a senior. Anderson had a rare combination of athleticism and the ability to play under control. Most freakishly athletic guys like Derek Anderson do not know how to harness their gift and make the most out of it, Derek Anderson was different, he could burn you with the three just as easily as he could pump fake you and go around you for a poster worthy jam. Anderson was a winner in his tenure at Kentucky racking up 34 wins against only 2 losses as a junior on the ’95-’96 Wildcat team that many consider to be the best college basketball team of all-time and a team that won the national title, and going 17-2 as a senior on the national runner-up team. Overall Anderson was 51-4 in games that he played in, a winning percentage of 94.4%. Here are some of Anderson’s career achievments, some that I have already talked about:

•  Scored 674 career points, 101st all-time at UK, despite only playing one and one half years
•  Anderson’s 94.4% winning percentage is top 10 in UK history, had he played the full season in ’96-’97 he would be #1 all-time in wins per year at UK
•  Anderson averaged 17.7 ppg as a senior at UK, number two on the team at that time (Ron Mercer)
•  All-NCAA Regional Team in ’95-’96 on the 34-2 Kentucky Wildcats that eventually won the national championship
•  In ’96-’97 Anderson was voted 2nd-team All-SEC by the coaches and 3rd-team by the AP despite playing in only 5 SEC games the entire year

One reason there are not many achievments listed is because of the injury Anderson suffered mid way through his senior season, had he played a full season he would be near the top in many single-season records at Kentucky including: points, free-throw attempts, free-throws made, three-pointers made & minutes in a season. Anderson is one of the first players to be named any time anyone says anything about UK basketball in the ’90’s. Even though Anderson’s stats are not as impressive as some players that made the list I stated in the update before the Kentucky Greats began that how the team does is a major part of the selection process and there are not many players (Almost none) that can say they went 51-4 in their career’s.

Videos of Derek Anderson

LINK TO ANOTHER VIDEO: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=467743