Justin Anderson may be turning pro, but he still holds the University of Virginia and his team close to his heart. Anderson, who is bypassing his senior year for the NBA Draft, made that clear Tuesday.
“I still consider myself, my teammates, and the coaches consider me and this program as family,” Anderson said. “I root for this team like no other and whatever the case may be, I’ll be their biggest fan. I’m still going to encourage the guys and talk the young guys every chance I get.”
Anderson also plans to finish his degree and he remains enrolled this semester at UVa. He has met with professors, academic advisor TJ Grams, and others to make sure he stays on course for the semester. While there is “no concrete plan in place” to finish his degree, Anderson indicated that the plan is to take online and summer classes when he is in the offseason.
“One thing that I was very concerned about was finishing up school,” Anderson said. “That’s one thing I want to make sure I do, not only for my family and my coaches here because they love to see that success, but for myself truly. I maintained a 3.0 GPA throughout my three years. … Those are definitely goals that I’ve had and pulling out of school or anything is not something I want to do. I want to make sure I finish up this year strong in the classroom.”
Beyond that, Anderson is focused on becoming a professional athlete. It was a tough decision to make due to the success he’s experienced at Virginia. The Cavaliers won the ACC Regular Season Championship out right the last two years and added the ACC Tournament Championship in 2014 as well. In total, Anderson played in 98 games during his career and helped lead UVa to 83 wins.
Individually, Anderson won the ACC’s Sixth Man of the Year Award from the conference’s media as a sophomore and earned second-team All-ACC recognition from both the media and the coaches as a junior. He also received second-team All-America honors this season from the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
Anderson leaves Virginia after three increasingly productive years. He averaged 7.6 points as a freshman, 7.8 as a sophomore, and 12.2 points as a junior. During his final season with the Hoos, he averaged career-highs in points (12.2), rebounds (4.0), 3-point shooting (45.2%), and minutes (27.8). Anderson was leading the ACC in 3-point shooting at 48.2 percent and was the team’s leading scorer before he suffered a broken left pinky on Feb. 7. He did not return for the final eight regular season games, in part due to an appendectomy during the final week of the regular season.
Before the season, turning pro was not on his mind.
“I honestly can say when I entered the season there was no thought to becoming a professional athlete,” Anderson said. “That’s not how we are here as a team. We’re very team oriented. We focus on what we can do as a team to achieve the most success. What we want to do here is we want to win championships and I think we did a good job here of winning a huge championship in the ACC regular season title.”
Once the season ended with a disappointing loss to Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 32, however, Anderson decided to look into the possibilities of turning pro. That process included talking to family and coaches as well as the more formal step of asking for feedback from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee.
The evaluation process projected Anderson as a mid-first round to early second round pick. This guarantees nothing of course when draft night actually arrives, but Anderson was comfortable enough with that feedback to give leaving early more consideration. From there, he consulted former Hoos that made the jump to the NBA. That included two players that played at UVa under Bennett in Joe Harris (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Mike Scott (Atlanta Hawks) plus Cory Alexander and Roger Mason Jr. Alexander is the last first-round draft pick from UVa when he was selected No. 29 in 1995.
“First, we definitely wanted to make sure we got good information,” Anderson said. “We had solid feedback from people who were talking to NBA GMs and people involved in that circle. … I think the information was spot on and accurate from what I’ve been hearing, and that’s mid-first [round] to early second, but that’s not what I worry about now. Right now with this process, I just want to be hungry and humble about everything and just be motivated to try to be the best basketball player I can be right now and to try to give myself an opportunity to play for a quality team.”
Of course, Anderson also discussed it with Coach Bennett himself.
“Coach Bennett was huge,” Anderson said. “I’m just so appreciative of the opportunity he gave me … by offering me a scholarship to come play for the University. … Throughout this process, coach was very big in my faith and he just wanted me to know that whatever decision is made is going to be a great decision – you have to have big faith and ask God for help. That plays a huge role in my life and his in particular. Everything he said to me was great advice about here’s the positives, here’s the negatives, and you have to be able to weigh everything pros and cons. I’m very thankful that he’s in my corner and able to give me that legitimate advice as a college coach.”
Anderson’s decision leaves a significant amount of playing time up for grabs at Virginia. He played an average of 24.1 minutes at UVa. When Anderson missed eight games at the end of this season, Evan Nolte started in his place while players like Marial Shayok and Devon Hall picked up opportunities for playing time as well. Add in Tennessee transfer Darius Thompson, who sat out this past season per NCAA rules, and there is already in-house competition for an increased role.
That doesn’t even factor in the possibilities of roster additions – the Hoos have two scholarships available with Anderson’s departure and B.J. Stith’s transfer to Old Dominion.
Whoever earns those minutes will be surrounded by a lot of returning talent that helped post back-to-back ACC titles. London Perrantes, Malcolm Brogdon, Anthony Gill, Mike Tobey, and Nolte all have starting experience at UVa, while others have at least a year in the system as well. Anderson knew all of that when he made his decision, but he’s focused on the future now.
“We’re going to have a great team regardless,” Anderson said. “We’ve seen that this year with my injury and a couple of guys having to step up. The program Coach Bennett runs here and our staff, we have guys that are very capable of stepping up. When I made this decision, I had to realize there’s no looking back so there’s no looking back at what could have been.”
