Filling in for King, Anderson steps up for Racers
MBB: King played for the first time this season against Mississippi Valley State
After hurting his knee in the final exhibition game against Northern State, Fred King saw his first action of the season Friday against Mississippi Valley State. The senior forward played 13 minutes against the Delta Devils, scoring 13 points and grabbing six rebounds. Murray State Head Coach Ryan Miller wanted to keep King under 15 minutes on Friday, but knows he has to be able to stretch out King’s time on the floor.
“I’ve known Fred for a long time, and I know what he’s capable of,” Miller said. “We’ve got to get his cardio right. He played 13 minutes, an effective 13 minutes, against Mississippi Valley State. If you look at Fred King historically at Creighton, when he is performing, not tired, not fatigued, he is as good as any center in the country. Our challenge having him sit out a couple weeks is that obviously his conditioning has gone down a little bit. We’ve got to get that conditioning level back up where he can play extended minutes for us. He’s 6’9, 270 pounds, athletic as heck, knows our system to T, and is a valuable, valuable, valuable player for us. We have to make sure he’s in good shape, because when he’s in good shape, he is a wrecking ball to deal with.”
With King being limited the first two games, junior forward Dylan Anderson took King’s spot in the starting lineup. Anderson got a chance to start in the first exhibition game against Xavier, but was ineffective after picking up four fouls in just four minutes.
In the first two games of the regular season, Anderson avoided foul trouble and greatly impacted winning.
Against Omaha and Mississippi Valley State, Anderson played a total of 36 minutes, scoring 12 points, making all four shots and going 4-for-4 from the free throw line, grabbing 12 rebounds and blocking two shots. While those numbers may not jump off the page, Anderson’s contribution was noticed and appreciated by the Murray State coaching staff.
“Dylan is going to be important an cog in what we do,” Miller said. “I couldn’t be more happy with him, and for him. He impacts the game way more than you see on a stat sheet: his ability to Gortat (screen) and get his teammates open; his ability to fight for every loose ball, getting us extra possessions. Some of it’s on the stat sheet, but a lot of it is not, and he has contributed in a major way. It’s a reason why we’ve been off to a pretty good start here, and hopefully we can continue to put together some wins, and that’s because of his role on this team.”
Anderson and the Racers will head to Dallas Tuesday to face SMU at 7:00pm.