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Long Beach Poly’s Ryan Anderson stands out on a team full of standouts

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Ryan Anderson is no longer Mr. Nice Guy. Early in his basketball career, when he was tall and relatively thin, he’d have trouble going inside. Outmuscling him was no big deal.

Now, in his senior year at Long Beach Poly, he’s 6 feet 8, weighs 215 pounds and dunks on defenders standing in his way.

“I’ve grown into my body,” he said. “It’s given me a lot more strength and one of the things I’m most proud about is the ability to finish inside.”

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If you ask who is the leading candidate for player of the year in high school basketball after two months, my vote would go to Anderson, who has helped lead the Jackrabbits to a 21-0 record entering Saturday’s 7 p.m. nationally televised game (ESPN2) against Las Vegas Bishop Gorman in the Nike Extravaganza at Santa Ana Mater Dei.

“He’s been doing fantastic,” Coach Sharrief Metoyer said. “He’s been shooting the basketball at a high percentage in the paint and behind the three-point line.”

Most importantly, he has an enforcer mentality inside, giving the Jackrabbits a valuable asset to go with its outstanding trio of guards, Alexis Moore, Alex Carmon and Roschon Prince.

“We’re all just a big piece to the puzzle,” Anderson said. “I’m a piece, our point guard is a piece. All of us could go to any other school and be a superstar, but we are all stars in our own roles on this team.”

The Nike Extravaganza features five girls’ games on Friday and 10 boys’ games on Saturday. It’s the appropriate venue to showcase Poly, ranked No. 1 by The Times and the favorite to win a state Division I title.

The Jackrabbits will face one of the best junior players in the country in 6-6 Shabazz Muhammad of Bishop Gorman.

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What makes Poly so good is that the Jackrabbits try not to rely on just one player, even though Anderson is the glue. He’s averaging 17.3 points and 10.1 rebounds.

He knows when he’s doing well or not. Last week, when he missed six free throws against Compton, he walked off the court telling people, “I was worse than Shaq,” referring to the free-throw shooting woes of Shaquille O’Neal.

He has signed with Boston College, so with his college future out of the way, he can focus on team goals.

“We have a target on our backs,” he said. “Every game we’re going to get the other team’s best effort. Our coaches are always keeping us focused on the long journey that’s ahead and in planning for March.

“That’s what everyone is going to remember, not that we started off 17-0, 18-0, 19-0. They’re going to remember how we played in March and how we finished off the season.”

So Anderson and his teammates want to make a good impression, but they know the biggest games are ahead, whether it be the Southern Section Division 1AA playoffs or the state tournament.

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It’s all going to be about being ready to perform at the right time. The excitement is building. Who wouldn’t want to see a Poly-Corona Centennial, a Poly-Mater Dei, a Poly-Etiwanda or a Poly-Woodland Hills Taft matchup?

Poly has that wonderful chemistry that’s always present in a potential championship team.

“You can see the bond we have,” Anderson said. “We really are family.”

And Anderson is leading the way.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

twitter.com/LATSondheimer

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