As an open media session wound down in Virginia’s locker room at PNC Arena in Raleigh last Saturday, Justin Anderson paused as he exited. A few reporters circled assistant coach Ritchie McKay and Anderson wanted in on the action.
Brandishing a fake microphone, Anderson cued up a question about the Cavaliers’ two feet on the next step mantra that focuses on taking one game at a time. McKay didn’t hesitate as he fired back sarcastically with a question about Anderson’s shoe size. A 13. With that, McKay dismissed the sophomore jokester by telling him that’s too big to even get two feet on a step.
“There’s only one Justin Anderson. God made him and then he broke the mold, but we love him,” McKay said with a smile.
Thus is the relationship between Anderson and those around him. He’s lively and rarely low on energy. He interacts with the crowd like a maestro leading an orchestra to crescendo, which Hoo fans have embraced full throat during this season’s magical ride.
Anderson is always quick with a smile or good-natured barb too. Take the Florida State game in the ACC Tournament for example when he chided Darion Atkins with a ‘soft’ comment when the junior post player didn’t finish a play when getting fouled hard in the lane. Atkins made both free throws and then threw home a vicious dunk moments later. Or when Malcolm Brogdon missed a free throw in truly rare fashion near the end of the Duke game in the ACC Tournament Championship – there was Anderson standing in front of the bench egging him on as Brogdon shot him a look while fighting back a grin.
Against Memphis on Sunday, Anderson kneeled on the floor after a timeout and wiped up water drops before returning to the bench to laugh with Atkins and Anthony Gill. “We call that extra air time. That’s all he’s trying to do. He knows all his family and friends are watching these games. That’s extra air time,” broadcaster Reggie Miller said in a mocking tone that sounded a lot like admiration from a fellow spotlight lover.
No, Reggie, Justin Anderson is not shy.
“What I like to tell everybody is that Justin lives his life like he’s on a reality show,” Virginia senior Joe Harris said smiling. “He’s walking around and he thinks cameras are on him 24-7. If you think he acts like that just on the court, you should see him all over the place. I don’t even know how to describe it. He’s as enthusiastic as it comes and just outrageous.”
It’s safe to assume that Anderson will love the bright lights of New York City this weekend for the Sweet Sixteen. The Cavaliers face Michigan State on Friday at 9:57 p.m. in Madison Square Garden.
That’s a long way from Anderson’s small town roots. Little Montross, Virginia, he often calls it. Anderson frequently speaks about the blessing to have the opportunity to play Division I basketball, much less in the tradition rich ACC and at Virginia, just a little more than 100 miles from his childhood home.
Montross has “maybe two” stoplights and Anderson’s actual road is about a mile and half long. There are approximately five houses and long fields on both sides of his house and “gnats flying all over the place and garden snakes in the middle of the road.” Population 355, Anderson guessed of a fact that Gill actually looked up – the 2010 census actually set the tally at 384.
There’s a bit of a country theme running through the Cavaliers. Gill is from High Point, N.C., while Teven Jones calls Kannapolis, N.C., home. Senior Thomas Rogers is from Farmville, Virginia. Being country, Anderson says, included things like mowing the grass, grass chewing, changing your own oil, “and Y’alling.” Anderson and brother Edward, who played at Mary Washington, helped their “dad build a massive shed that we had in our backyard that we built up from the ground.”
The Anderson brothers, as you’d expect, played a lot of basketball too. The small town roots show up there as well. At one point, they broke the backboard on the basket at home. That required a little country ingenuity to keep playing. It involved a hardware store bucket and a saw.
“My brother actually had to cut that in half and we nailed that to a telephone pole when we broke our backboard on the basketball hoop,” Anderson said. “We played basketball through a Home Depot bucket with a women’s ball because that was the only ball that would fit through it.”
That Anderson would do whatever it takes to play basketball probably isn’t surprising to those who have followed his playing days from Montross to Courtland to Montrose Christian and Virginia. He’s accepted the energizer role this season as the Hoos’ first guard sub, something that helped him earn recognition as the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association’s Sixth Man of the Year. That helped UVa pile up a 30-6 record to date. He averages 8.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 21.5 minutes with 27 blocks and 13 steals.
While those numbers are solid, however, it’s the intangibles that lift his contributions to new levels. Against teams like Notre Dame and Maryland at the John Paul Jones Arena, he soared in from behind to block shots and ignite a momentum-swinging transition play in the other direction. Against Syracuse he hit a couple of second-half 3-pointers to help put away the Orange.
In a 57-53 win at Virginia Tech, Anderson started 0-3 from 3-point range only to make 2 out of 3 in the final 3:30 when he scored 9 points to help the Cavaliers surge to victory. But earlier in the second half, an effort play turned the tide. Anderson tipped the ball away near midcourt and then dove on the floor chasing the loose ball. That fired up Coach Bennett and ignited the rally by the Hoos.
“Justin’s willing to do whatever it takes. I think when he was in eighth grade he was one of the highest rated players in the country,” McKay said. “So it speaks to his selflessness that he’d buy into the intangibles. I think his best days are ahead of him still, but he’s very instrumental to our team and our success.”
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Drove through Montross on the way to Raleigh last weekend.