JERSEY CITY, N.J. –– On Friday, the day before his team was to play St. Anthony in the New Jersey state tournament, Dwight-Englewood head coach Eli Goldberger gathered his players and gave them a little window into the star player they would be facing.
“In five years,” Goldberger told his kids, “you may see him in an NBA All-Star Game.”
Kyle Anderson then went out and put up 26 points, 13 rebounds and 2 assists in less than four quarters of work to lead St. Anthony to a 69-30 rout of Dwight-Englewood in the North Non-Public B semifinals at the CERC in Jersey City.
For the record, Anderson and the Friars are now 28-0 on the season and have won 61 consecutive games dating to last season.
“DiMaggio-esque,” said Bobby Hurley, the former St. Anthony and Duke point guard who is now an assistant to his younger brother, Dan, at Wagner College.
Next up is the North B final Thursday against Hudson Catholic at Rutgers. Hudson Catholic beat Morristown-Beard, 76-58.
Should the Friars win that game, they would likely need only three more victories — one in the Non-Public B final and two in the Tournament of Champions — to finish the season at 32-0.
That would mean a 65-0 mark over two years and the possibility of back-to-back mythical national titles.
“It feels good,” Anderson said. “But we can’t focus on the overall, we just got to take it one game at a time, really.”
The last time the 6-foot-9 Anderson lost a high school basketball game was on March 12, 2010, when his Paterson Catholic team, then No. 6 in the USA Today poll, was upset by St. Anthony, 63-49, in the North B final at Rutgers.
So it has been almost two years since he last lost a high school game. He has never lost in a Friars jersey.
“I always remember that game in Paterson Catholic that we lost to St. Anthony,” Anderson said. “I just gotta reflect that on this year.”
The last organized game he lost was an adidas Nations game last August. As in 2011.
Since Hall of Fame St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley has moved Anderson from point guard to more of a small forward position, he has scored 95 points in his last three games, a stretch that has included games of 35, 34 and 26 points.
“I’m around the basket more, posting up and being more effective around the basket,” Anderson said. “And then open it up to the perimeter game.”
It remains an open question what position Anderson will play at UCLA once he gets there next fall.
“He plays inside/out,” Hurley said. “He used to play outside/in, that’s probably the best way to describe it. He’s just a guy that you gotta kind of figure out who you’re going to put on now. And he’s so good around the basket that he’s scored 100 points [95 actually] since we moved him around the basket, so that certainly helps your offensive output.”
Anderson said he has not read the recent damning Sports Illustrated article about his future program, and UCLA coach Ben Howland hasn’t contacted him about it.
Anderson also said that he doesn’t feel any special burden to turn the storied program’s image around once he lands on campus.
“I don’t know about me turning the program around, but I think we’re going to have to do it collectively,” he said. “But I definitely always want to go in there with a positive image and a positive attitude.”
Said Hurley: “That would be too much responsibility for one kid to do. He made a decision about going there based on a lot of things, and he and his family invested a lot of time in this decision. I know now they probably have a little bit of concern, but I’m not going to speak for them
“I just know that that’s not really the Ben Howland that I know, all of these things that I’m hearing.”
UCLA AD Dan Guerrero has told the Los Angeles Times he will meet with Howland following the season “before I comment on the long-term future.”
The stands were packed at this game and several fans wore blue Duke sweatshirts, perhaps dating to their support of Bobby Hurley’s time there. Hurley won back-to-back national titles at Duke in 1991-92.
The shirts also indicated support for the Blue Devils in Saturday’s huge ACC showdown against North Carolina.
Two key uncommitted recruits, 6-6 wing Shabazz Muhammad, and 6-9 forward Tony Parker are both considering Duke, along with UCLA and other schools. Muhammad will be in attendance for the Duke game, and is expected to announce in early April. He is also considering Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona and UNLV.
Anderson hopes that one or both players still commit to UCLA, although the likelihood of that happening may have gone down now in light of the SI story.
“I haven’t spoken to them [Muhammad and Parker] either,” Anderson said. “I just want all of them to make their decision on their own. I don’t want to pressure them into anything because it’s what they want.”
But of course, the better players that come to UCLA, the more talent Anderson will have around him.
“Yeah,” Anderson said. “Of course.”
FREE THROWS
Hurley benched starters Josh Brown and Kody Jenkins to start the game because they came late to scouting report. “It’s his word,” Anderson said of Hurley’s decision. “His values are more than winning. It’s not worth more to win more than than the team values.”…St. Patrick and Paterson Catholic, two of St. Anthony’s chief rivals in the North bracket, are both either closed or closing, and Hurley was asked if it was weird that his team won’t play either one of them next. “No,” he said, “we’re just playing. I don’t care who we play. It’s different, it’s different. No question it’s different.” If St. Anthony does face Hudson Catholic, Anderson will go up against two former PC teammates in Reggie Cameron and Kavon Stewart. “They on the other team now,” Anderson said. “It don’t got nothing to do with me being at Paterson Catholic no more.”
