DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat

UA junior forward Ricky Anderson dunks a ball with authority yesterday in McKale Center. Anderson, who redshirted last season, is expected to play a bigger role in the Wildcats' offense this season after spending a year rounding out his game.

Confident Anderson steps up after redshirt season

Time was running short for the Wildcats in the second round of the NCAA Tournament two years ago.

Wisconsin's defense suffocated then-No. 1 Arizona.

While most UA fans remember the game for the final score in the 66-59 loss, junior forward Rick Anderson remembers the game a bit more vividly - for different reasons.

With time running out, Anderson missed a critical jumper, his only missed shot of the game.

"I remember that if I would have made that shot, we probably would have beaten Wisconsin," Anderson said. "I had the chance to be a star and I failed."

Flash forward to last week.

Again, the clock was winding down.

The Wildcats held their collective breath as the ball left Anderson's fingertips once again.

Though guarded tightly, the swingman managed to get a go-ahead, left-handed layup to fall with less than a minute left, and unranked Arizona went on to pull off its second upset of a top-10 team in as many games.

Before last week's tournament in New York City, Anderson's last action for the Wildcats came in that loss to Wisconsin in the 2000 tournament.

Anderson, who used his redshirt year in 2000, sat and watched his teammates contend for the national championship, still scarred from the defeat to the Badgers the previous year.

"I knew after (the Wisconsin) game that I should redshirt the next season," Anderson said. "(The team) didn't really need me last year, everybody could see it."

Since junior high, Anderson has been driven to play against the best. But his road to success has not been easy.

Often lost in the shuffle, Anderson never really found the limelight or had the chance to be the go-to guy. But he'll be asked to fill that role sometime this season.

While growing up in Long Beach, Calif., Anderson took the court with teammates and opponents that are now some of top players in the country.

"I had the best seventh- and eighth-grade team of all time, probably," Anderson said. "It was me, Tayshaun Prince, Casey Jacobsen, Jason Kapono, Brandon Granville and Tony Bland. I think I was No. 8 off the bench. It was like playing under the stars."

Three of those players are now All-Americans (Prince at Kentucky, Jacobsen at Stanford and Kapono at UCLA) and Granville is considered one of the premier point guards in the Pac-10. Bland is now playing at San Diego State.

After watching his former teammates succeed, Anderson wondered if and when his time would come.

After inconsistent performances in his first two seasons under head coach Lute Olson, Anderson redshirted last season in order to improve his game.

"My freshman and sophomore year, I would go for two games and have 15 or 16 points, and I would go back and have zero or two points," Anderson said. "It is consistency in one way, but a lot had to do with confidence. That's why the redshirt year matured me, in a way of getting more confidence in myself."

Looking back, Anderson said he is happy with the decision he made.

"(Redshirting) was probably the best decision I have made in my life," Anderson said. "Having to see everyone else play was an experience for me. I regret not playing a little bit, but I was doing what was best for me."

Anderson said that if he hadn't changed since the 2000 tournament, his game-winner against Florida probably would never have happened.

"I don't know if Coach O would have set the play up for me," Anderson said. "I have a lot more confidence. That is why I came through (against Florida)."

Olson said that although his team avoids looking for one guy to win the game, Anderson was the go-to guy in crunch time.

"We have never been a team to say 'this guy is going to take the last shot,' but we did not use the clock well. I knew if we were going to get up a good shot, we needed to get the ball in Ricky's hands."

The ball is now in Rick Anderson's hands as a leader, not a role player, on this Wildcat team.

"I am going to go out and try to show what I have," Anderson said. "I just want to prove to the nation that I can play ball."