A new life for Anderson in postseason.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

After 105 games over four years, it still wasn't difficult for Oregon's Jay Anderson to single out a special game in his college career: the next one.

It could be any night, against any opponent. It's where the Ducks will be playing Michigan in a semifinal game of the National Invitation Tournament, at Madison Square Garden in New York.

`It's going to be unbelievable,' Anderson said. `It's the Mecca of college basketball, when you think about all the great players who have played there. It's like a dream come true for a college basketball player to play there.'

For Anderson, it will be the site of his last college game, whether it comes Tuesday in the semifinal game against the Wolverines, or Thursday in the NIT title game.

Won't that be something for a guy from Faribault, Minn., who played in the first college game he attended? That was back in the fall of 2000, when Anderson was one of four freshmen brought in by the Ducks. A hundred games and countless practices later, he goes out on a court that has hosted games everybody's watched.

`It's been pretty cool,' Anderson said. `Before it started, I thought about being able to travel to a lot of places I'd never been before.'

Check out the stops along the way. Some of the best pro arenas in the country, Arco in Sacramento and the Staples Center. Host sites for Final Fours, like Kemper in Kansas City, Mo., and the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J. The home gym of the basketball Hall of Fame, in Springfield, Mass.

Now it concludes at Madison Square Garden itself, and a case could be made the Ducks aren't going there without the play of Anderson in these three NIT victories that led to the semifinal berth.

The obvious moment was Anderson's possession-saving rebound in the final seconds at Notre Dame on Thursday, which let the Ducks expand their three-point lead. What's not so readily apparent is Anderson's role as the veteran among the UO post players.

`Jay Anderson is so important to us, in what we're doing,' said Fred Litzenberger, the UO assistant coach who has such a heavy hand in Oregon's defensive preparation.

Among post players who are otherwise all freshmen and sophomores, Anderson is the senior who understands not only his role at either end of the court, but the assignments of teammates as well. Among Oregon's biggest players who sometimes are a gamble at the free-throw line, Anderson is the surest thing, a .724 free-throw shooter whom the Ducks can play at the end of close games, and not fret that opposing teams will put him at the line.

The most obvious statistic to rate his impact isn't in the numbers of points or rebounds, but minutes played: his have gone up over his playing time in the regular season, to 20.3 minutes in the three NIT games.

It's probably not a coincidence that with Anderson's increased role, Oregon's big guys as a group have become more significant contributors during this March run of six victories in seven games. What he traces their improved play back to was a meeting of the five Ducks who are 6-foot-8 or taller, during the Pac-10 tournament.

`It's important for us as a team to have the big guys playing hard and playing with confidence,' Anderson said. `When we're doing that, with (Oregon's perimeter players) we are pretty tough to beat.

`When the big guys had our meeting, we just talked about playing harder, that `we had to hold up our end of the bargain' and since then, we've started playing really well and with a lot more confidence.'

Anderson said that if he's a significant factor in all that, it's primarily as a booster to the spirits of those underclassmen.

`I definitely try to give them as much confidence as I can because I think that's the biggest key,' he said. `It just spreads from one guy to another. You see one guy doing well and you cheer for him, and I think it helps you know you can do it, too. You get confidence from each other.

`Those guys have the game, so it wasn't a matter of me helping them with that. I tried to answer questions whenever they came to me, but I didn't try to force anything on them.'

That's more likely to be on the court, and then only with a subtle push at that. But every once in a while, it's Anderson with a reminder of where a teammate should go, or what to watch out for on the inside.

`It's just the repetitions I've had after four years,' Anderson said. `I know what (opponents) are going to do from watching the game and playing so long. If I know what's coming, I might as well help out my teammates.'

It's gotten Anderson and the Ducks all the way to Madison Square Garden. Short of the NCAA's Final Four, where better to end a season, and for Anderson possibly his playing career?

`I don't know for sure about that. I'd like to keep playing, but I do know it's coming down to my last college game,' Anderson said. `It's kind of scary to think about, but it's definitely a rush at the end.'

CAPTION(S):

Jay Anderson (55) provides a veteran presence among Oregon's defenders in the post, and he has made some valuable contributions to the Ducks' NIT run. S t o r y l a b e l O r e g o n b a s k e t b a l l