Notebook: Trevor Anderson on facing former team, working back from injury

MADISON -- On the opposite side of the Kohl Center court on Thursday evening, Wisconsin guard Trevor Anderson will see his former head coach, Green Bay's Linc Darner.

The players he will match up against, however, will not be so familiar.

“The coaches were asking about a couple of players and different things. But, actually, I really don’t know anybody," Anderson told reporters on Tuesday. "Kam Hankerson was the guy I came in with freshman year, and he’s the only guy that was there. Everyone else graduated. They get a lot of JUCO guys. Those are two-year stints but I’m looking forward to it."

Anderson transferred from Green Bay and walked on at Wisconsin, as Greg Gard's program made the announcement official on June 14, 2017. The 6-foot-2 guard played one season for Darner and his Horizon League team, scoring 9.8 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists per contest in 20 games before a back injury forced him to miss the rest of the 2016-17 season.

"I’m looking forward to seeing my old coaches," Anderson said. "I don’t know if they’re looking forward to seeing me, but I got tremendous respect for those guys. I had to do what I had to do from a personal happiness standpoint, but I still love those guys to death. Got nothing but great things to say about those coaches over there."

One thing Anderson does remember - a small scouting report on the 1-2 Phoenix - is that the team likes to press and are "fast and sporadic." According to KenPom, Green Bay's adjusted tempo is 77.1, good for 10th in Division 1.

“Their mantra is RP40 -- Relentless Pressure for 40 minutes -- so they’re going to get up and guard us the full length of the court," Anderson said. "They’re going to take quick shots and just try to speed up that tempo, so I think from our standpoint if we just play our game, keep our low to medium possession game, I think we’ll be alright.”

Anderson sat out the 2017-18 season due to NCAA rules, utilizing his redshirt. Upon finally being eligible to play last year, he only saw action in eight games before suffering a knee injury that cost him the rest of his redshirt sophomore campaign.

During Tuesday's session, a reporter asked Anderson if he ever regretted the decision to transfer since arriving at Wisconsin.

“No, not at all," Anderson said. "Just from a school standpoint, just different things with football games and just some of my teammates I’ve met here. Obviously, the injury could have went a little differently and maybe things would be different at this moment, but this is where I am right now, and I just keep clawing and grinding to get back to how I was playing before the injury.

"I’ve loved my time here, and I know I’ll continue to love it."

In candid fashion, Anderson admitted it has been "frustrating" in returning from his injury. He has leaned on his roommate and teammate, Kobe King, who himself missed most of the 2017-18 season due to a broken patella.

According to Anderson, he is "here from like 12-to-8," rehabbing and lifting to regain quadricep and hamstring strength after the injury.

"But, I mean, it still gets really sore, really tight," Anderson said. "Even a practice -- we’re two months in -- and towards the end of it, the whole front of my knee hurts, so it’s a grind. I know I’ll get there. I got the best athletic trainer in the world, Henry [Perez-Guerra], but I’ll get there.

"It’s a slow, slow process. Anybody that I’ve talked to, friends and just different people that have went through ACLs, they know what it’s like, and they just say to stay patient and just keep attacking it day-by-day.”

Through four games, Anderson is averaging 10.5 minutes and has not committed a turnover while dishing out seven assists. From junior guard Brad Davison's perspective, he brings a lot to this Badgers' team in multiple areas -- whether at practice, during game action, or in the weight room.

“Coming into games, he plays at a different pace," Davison said on Tuesday. "He’s very calm, he’s very confident and comfortable out there. Knows when to get it to the right spots to the right people that can make plays. He’s been huge for us on both ends of the floor, whether it’s giving 'Meech' [D'Mitrik Trice] and I a break or him coming in, whether it’s scoring, setting people up. He can kind of do it all for us so he’s been huge so far.”

During Wisconsin's 3-1 start to the 2019-20 season, the team has quieted early questions about if it could get to the free throw line with the departure of Ethan Happ. Last season, the standout big man attempted 161 of the team's 531 free throws (30.3 percent).

Through the quartet of contests this year, UW is beating opponents in getting to the charity stripe by an 82-55 advantage. For that matter, the Badgers have also shot more free throws in each game. Perhaps what is most promising is that fact that they are shooting 81.7 percent in that particular category.

King, who leads the teams in attempts from the line (21), believes confidence, knowing that shooting free throws is a way to get "easy points," along with getting teams in foul trouble, are keys in how the team has attacked the rim and drawn those calls.

"I think you see a lot of guys where they're going to the rim, and they're making mistakes, myself included, where you see us get blocked every once in a while," King said on Tuesday. "Instead of not going, we're going again and we're being smarter about it. Just having that confidence and the coaches letting us know like, 'Hey, I like how you're attacking, but this is what you can do better.'

"I think just that being said over and over has kind of led to us getting to the line a lot more."