Anderson is excellent all-around

Alex Anderson doesn’t have a signature move, which is just one of the many things she has going for her. Unpredictability is a weapon just like size, speed or accuracy from 3-point range.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s 6-foot-1 star senior can beat defenders any number of ways. This week the media and Southern Conference coaches voted her player of the year for the second straight season.

“I feel like I’ve had a good season and a good career,” Anderson said. “My freshman year I thought I’d hate (college), but that summer I went home and worked on my game, and all that hard work has paid off.”

Anderson can post up and shoot over or around defenders, she consistently knocks down mid-range jumpers and she even is comfortable on the perimeter.

That’s why when it comes to slowing UTC’s offense, Georgia Southern coach Rusty Cram said, “You have to stop her first.”

Many have tried, but few have succeeded. Her 1,670 career points are fifth all-time at UTC, and she’s third in rebounds with 973.

“I don’t think there’s a formula out there that hasn’t been tried,” Cram said.

Anderson is most unstoppable when she’s got some space. That’s when her speed and quickness take over. She can easily drive past bigger, slower post players from the top of the key or she can post up in the paint, fake one direction and spin past her defender the other way for two easy points and maybe a chance for a three-point play.

All that is why UTC coach Wes Moore designed his offense around getting her the ball in the paint with room to maneuver. The Lady Mocs often have four players on the perimeter and Anderson down low, where she has the chance to beat her defender one-on-one and regularly put up big numbers.

“I knew when we really committed to the four-out, one-in that she was going to have an opportunity,” Moore said. “And of course we did that because you want to take advantage of your strengths.”

The system works not only because of Anderson’s abilities but also because UTC’s perimeter players shoot so many 3s that they can’t be left alone outside. Senior Brooke Hand’s 304 career 3s are the most in SoCon history, women or men.

“She knows if she kicks it out to me I’m hopefully going to hit a 3, and if I throw it down to her I know she’s going to score,” Hand said. “It kind of goes hand in hand.”

Anderson, who’s from Stone Mountain, Ga., and is the daughter of former Georgia and NBA player Willie Anderson, leads the SoCon in scoring with 17.7 points per game, is second in rebounding at 8.6 and third in field-goal percentage (.519). Today, she will lead the top-seeded Lady Mocs (26-3) into the conference tournament at the North Charleston Coliseum.

As highly regarded as she is for her offensive production, her play on defense shouldn’t be overlooked. Anderson set the UTC career record for blocked shots last year, and with 57 this season she has 217 in her career. Anderson has also led UTC in steals the past two seasons and has 181 in her career.

Two reasons for Anderson’s consistent production at both ends of the floor are her health — she’s started every game the past three seasons — and her hard work in practice and in the offseason.

“The thing that’s so great about her is that she’s just worked so hard to get better,” Moore said. “When your player that maybe has received the most accolades is also working the hardest every day, that makes it easy on a coach.”

One way or another, Anderson plans to stay in the game once this season comes to an end. She’d like to give professional basketball a try, whether it’s in the WNBA or abroad, and when her playing days are behind her she plans to get into coaching.

She said she thinks about playing professionally “a lot. That’s my future so I have to think about it, but I try not to think about it so much that it affects my game.

“Hopefully (in 10 years) I’ll be coaching high school and trying to bring my knowledge that I’ve learned from past coaches onto other players. I just want to continue in this, basketball, and make it greater than it is now.”