COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA TOURNAMENTS : Something in Reserve : Indiana’s Eric Anderson Rediscovers Shooting Touch as the Team’s Sixth Man

Statistically, this has been the worst of Eric Anderson’s four seasons at Indiana.

He is scoring less and missing more shots.

A starter in all but eight of his first 126 games at Indiana, he was benched three weeks ago by Coach Bob Knight.

But is he disappointed?

Not so you would notice.

That’s because, as Indiana’s sixth man during the NCAA tournament, Anderson has led the Hoosiers to the Final Four.

Indiana will play Duke in a semifinal tonight.

“I enjoy coming off the bench,” Anderson said. “I feel like I can give a lift to the team. I’m playing the same number of minutes that I’ve always played. It’s just a matter of, this set-up has worked for us. Why deviate from that? I’m very happy with the way things are going right now.”

He couldn’t have said the same on the night of March 14.

Earlier that day, the Hoosiers had lost to Purdue, 61-59, squandering a chance to wrap up a share of the Big Ten championship. Anderson had made only two of 10 shots against the Boilermakers, ending a disappointing regular season during which he shot 44.9%. He shot at least 50% in each of his first three seasons.

Against Big Ten foes, Anderson shot only 38.4%.

“I went through some periods where I really wasn’t shooting the ball well,” Anderson said. “I hit a slump and I tried a bunch of different ways to try to correct that. I overcompensated.”

In nine conference road games, he never made 50% of his shots. A 52.8% shooter during his first three seasons, the 6-foot-9 Anderson missed five of eight shots at Wisconsin, Michigan State and Minnesota, seven of 11 at Illinois and Iowa, four of five at Ohio State, 10 of 13 at Michigan.

Finally, after the Purdue game, Knight sat him down.

As a backup center, however, Anderson has regained his touch. He made 15 of 22 shots in two games last week and was voted the outstanding player in the West Regional at Albuquerque, N.M. He has made 22 of 31 shots during the tournament.

He made eight of 12 shots in Albuquerque, scoring a season-high 24 points during an 85-74 victory over Florida State, then making seven of 10 and scoring 17 points in the Hoosiers’ 106-79 victory over top-seeded UCLA in the West Regional final.

“He’s a great stand-still shooter,” UCLA captain Gerald Madkins said. “If you leave him alone, he’s going to kill you. He is going to carve you up.

“I mean, he’s Don (MacLean) in an Indiana uniform. He can rebound because he’s (6-9), and if you leave him open, he’s going to bust your butt.

“That’s what Florida State did and that’s what we did. We let him shoot. You get in his jersey and he’s not going to hurt you.

“But if you allow him to catch it, square up and shoot, he’ll make his shots. And with their wavering screens--I’m not going to call them illegal--he gets open and he gets his shots.”

Until recently, however, he had missed most of them.

While earning Big Ten freshman of the year honors three seasons ago, Anderson made 54.5% of his shots and averaged 11.9 points and 6.1 rebounds. As a sophomore, he shot 53.7% and averaged 16.3 points and seven rebounds.

Stardom was predicted.

Even when he slipped to 50.7% shooting last season, Anderson averaged 13.7 points and 7.1 rebounds, and Indiana won the Big Ten title.

This season, he is averaging 11.2 points and 5.1 rebounds. He is shooting 47.8%.

Until recently, it had been a difficult season. Early on, Knight complained about his team’s lack of senior leadership, a direct knock on Anderson, one of only two Hoosier seniors, and told Anderson that he and fellow senior Jamal Meeks were expected to provide more consistency.

During the NCAA tournament, they have delivered.

Meeks has provided 34 assists while making only five turnovers, a 7-1 ratio that is all but unheard of in college basketball.

And the Hoosiers, led by Anderson, have shot 56.2%, compared to 36.1% during their last three games of the regular season.

“At the end of the season, we didn’t play very well, but we got ourselves together and pretty much put our minds (together) to make something of this season by doing well in the tournament,” Anderson said.

“We really pushed toward it and have been working hard to do well.”

* TODAY’S GAMES: C10