Kentucky Faces Rough Road Back

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, in the Final Four last season, already had Kansas, Wake Forest and Kentucky penciled in at the RCA Dome on March 29 and 31 in Indianapolis. Then he heard about Kentucky’s senior swingman Derek Anderson going down with a season-ending knee injury.

Boeheim scratched the defending NCAA champion Wildcats from that elite list, adding there could be two surprise teams in Indy now.

Anderson’s injury is one of the more crucial losses for a potential NCAA title team in recent memory. Kansas’ center Scot Pollard, out with a stress fracture in his foot, is an important part in KU’s attack and is expected to return. But Anderson was the top scorer in the Southeastern Conference and led the No. 3-ranked Wildcats in several statistical categories.

“It’s devastating for all of us,” Kentucky coach Rick Pitino said. “Here he was, three or four months away from being a lottery pick, having an unbelievable season. Statistically, he was the best player on our team by far… . To see this happen after battling back from one anterior cruciate ligament injury (when Anderson was at Ohio State) was devastating.”

After Anderson suffered the injury in the Wildcats’ victory over Auburn last Saturday, Kentucky trainers believed it was a bruised knee. But the knee began to swell, and a resonance imaging test showed the tear. Anderson had successful surgery on the right knee for a torn anterior cruciate ligament and will begin months of rehab.

Pitino predicts he will probably not go high in the draft now, but will have to show NBA teams he still has the same quickness.

Anderson had a similar operation on his left knee during his sophomore season at Ohio State in 1993-94. He came back from that injury to play himself into a starting spot at Kentucky last season after sitting out 1994-95 in Lexington.

And with the losses of Antoine Walker, Mark Pope, Tony Delk and Walter McCarty this season, Anderson was one of two primary players on the Kentucky team. The other was 6-7 sophomore Ron Mercer, now the team’s leading scorer.

Anderson, from Louisville, had the stage this season at Kentucky. He always said he liked to play like Magic Johnson, and he was starting to show some of those likenesses. Besides scoring 18.6 points a game, Anderson led the Wildcats in steals (2.1 apg), three-point shooting (40.4 percent), free throw shooting (80.6 percent) and was second on the team in assists (3.7 apg).

There is no one player on the Kentucky team who can fill Anderson’s void. But Pitino said junior Allen Edwards, a swing-man, sophomore forward Scott Padgett and sophomore guard Wayne Turner would have to step up their games in order to replace Anderson.

“I think Kentucky is still the best basketball team in the SEC and one of the best teams in the country,” Arkansas’ coach Nolan Richardson said. “I realize he is a very, very key player (but) Kentucky is a very, very special kind of basketball team, with size, quickness, heart and tenacity. And they have some other kids to step in.”

Boeheim and others wonder if they will be enough for a repeat.