Oct. 5, 2007
The Nova Notebook, by Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan, appears weekly beginning in September through February with monthly updates in the off-season. This week we visit with junior Dwayne Anderson.
Throughout the 2006-07 season, Villanova head coach Jay Wright would waste no opportunity to remind members of his sophomore class what lay ahead. When the final buzzer sounded on '06-07, as it ultimately did on a March night in Chicago in a first round NCAA Tournament loss to Kentucky, a whole new world would lie before them.
In essence, there would be no more drafting in the considerable shadow of leaders like Randy Foye, Allan Ray, Curtis Sumpter, Mike Nardi, and Will Sheridan. With no one in the class ahead of them following the departure of Kyle Lowry following the 2005-06 season into the National Basketball Association draft, the burden of the internal guidance of the Wildcats would fall to members of the class of 2009.
"Coach would always tell us that being a captain was no easy job," recalls junior Dwayne Anderson. "He said it was the most responsibility anyone on the team has."
The moment arrived as everyone knew it would. And now the task of steering the Wildcats in 2007-08 falls to their four captains - juniors Anderson, Shane Clark and Dante Cunningham along with sophomore Scottie Reynolds.
For Anderson, the role seems natural. From his first day on campus after arriving from St. Thomas More in Connecticut in 2005, Anderson has been someone his peers have looked to. Although generally reserved in public settings, the 6-6 native of Silver Springs, Md., exudes a maturity that has always played well in the locker room. Now those attributes have been acknowledged officially.
"It's a lot of weight on your shoulders," Anderson says of his assignment as a team captain. "There are a lot of new guys and people coming back from last year adjusting to how the coaching staff wants to do things. You also know that you are following in the footsteps of guys like Randy and ARay."
Anderson paid close attention to those who set the tone in the locker room while he was an underclassman. Those lessons now resonate clearly as he and his fellow captains look forward to the new season.
"The most important thing I got from those guys was to keep a positive attitude, no matter what the situation is," states Anderson. "As a captain, you notice things more. You see things that you may not have paid attention to when you were younger. I love the responsibility."
In his first two seasons, Anderson has mostly contributed as a role player at Villanova. When he came to campus, his path to minutes was blocked by All-Americans Foye and Ray as well as a first round NBA draft pick (Lowry) and four year starter Mike Nardi. Then as a sophomore, he showed flashes of the scoring skills that characterized his prep and high school careers, including a career high 18 point outburst in a victory over Iowa at the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands in November. But inconsistency was an issue and he connected on less than 36 percent of his field goal attempts in 23 games.
Now he is one of a host of wing players, including Clark, Reggie Redding, Corey Stokes who will be vying for playing time at the 2, 3 and conceivably even the 4 spots on the floor.
Still, Anderson knows he has grown as a player and is eager to contribute.
"As a player, you just learn the game, how Coach Wright wants you to play as a Villanova basketball player," he states. "I think just playing with the mindset he wants us to will take me far in life. As a person, I know I've grown just being around the people here.
"I have no regrets. I love everything about this school academically and basketball-wise. It's put me in a perfect position after college."
In the mean time, Anderson is determined to carry on in the manner his predecessors did. His voice carries weight among his teammates and his aims for this season are direct.
"I want to contribute in any way I can," he says.
Like his peers, Anderson relished the opportunity to practice for 10 days with his teammates in August prior to the team's visit to Ottawa. He played in all four games north of the border, starting once, averaging 5.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per outing. His field goal percentage was .583 and he drained 3-of-5 (.600) from beyond the 3-point arc while averaging 13 minutes per game.
Anderson seems well-suited to his new position as elder statesman.
"Personality-wise, we always have great people," he observes. "My freshman year, we were considered midgets. Now, we're giants. It's the total opposite.
"We're not as little or as quick as we were then. But Coach Wright always finds a way to fit your game into the system instead of you trying to fit your game into his system."
The junior's leadership traits are such that Wright has mentioned to him the possibility of Anderson one day becoming a coach. The Washington, D.C. area product isn't sure he's headed in that direction once his playing days are over, though he does concede that the notion of staying around the game has appeal.
"After college, I still want to pursue basketball," he says. "Once my career is over, I may want to pursue something like being an NBA scout. Then after that I would like to own my own business."
(It should be noted that time sometimes has a way of changing those kinds of opinions on coaching. Wright spoke often to Nardi about the prospect of the guard becoming a coach when his playing days are finished. In his first three seasons at Villanova, Nardi was quick to dismiss any such ideas when others broached the subject. Yet by the time his senior year rolled around, the Linden, N.J., native was no longer willing to entirely rule out the prospect. He is now in Italy playing professionally.)
At the moment, Anderson's business is in the class room and on the court. He is very serious about living up to the new demands on him in the Villanova basketball program.
"Just us being here for a couple of years makes us the veterans," Anderson says of his fellow captains. "We know the tricks of the trade, so to speak. We just want to do all we can to be here for the young guys, to kind of be the big brother figures to them guys like Randy and ARay were to us."
