MMBOW #17: Kevin Anderson, Richmond

With our final weekly award of the season, we celebrate the work of a young Spider who used a two-game stretch to strike a little bit of arachnophobia into the hearts of Atlantic 14 opponents heading into the league's elimination event. Kevin Anderson of Richmond is our seventeenth, and final, Mid-Majority Baller of the Week for the 2008-09 season.

Mr. Anderson's March began strongly, with a 24-point game in a 64-62 Spider win at Charlotte last Tuesday. The sophomore guard played all 40 minutes, making eight of his 13 shots including the game-winner. He also grabbed six rebounds -- doubling his season average, and six is always an impressive accomplishment for a guard who stands six-flat. But then the Duluth, Ga. native had the performance of his career four days later, when he put up 29 points against league-leading Xavier -- a team that had clinched its third straight regular-season championship earlier in the week. In a 80-75 win that served as a warning shot going into next week's tourney in Atlantic City, Mr. Anderson once again played the whole game, made half his shots (10-for-20), converted nine of his 10 free throws, grabbed four boards and nabbed a couple of steals as well. It was certainly a good time to post a career scoring high, and he put a cap on the highest one-week point total of his two-year collegiate stint.

Consider this a season-long achievement award, too. Richmond's year was supposedly over before it began -- Dan Geriot was the team's leading scorer and rebounder during 2007-08 (14.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg), but he tore up his knee in a summer tourney last July and was lost for the season. Young Mr. Anderson, the 2008 A-14 Rookie of the Year, helped pick up the slack: he moved from 10.2 ppg up to a squad-leading 16.2 when his team needed more. He also became a much more efficient scorer, too, making 1.29 points per shot against 1.14 in his freshman year. The overall result? The Spiders achieved the same 9-7 conference record as they did a year ago, and have one more overall victory now (17) than in all of 2007-08. And no matter what happens next week, they'll re-add Geriot for 2009-10 for a possible run at the league title.

Spider Pride is alive and well, thanks in large part to our Mid-Majority Baller of the Week.

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