Hard work pays off for MU’s Anim
There's not many college basketball experiences like Sacar Anim's these days.
The fifth-year Marquette senior played limited minutes his freshman season. That situation usually screams that a transfer is imminent. Instead, Anim took a redshirt season and worked relentlessly to improve.
Anim graduated last year. The 6foot-5 wing player could have taken his versatile skill-set to another school for a starring role without having to sit out a season. Instead, Anim enrolled in graduate classes at MU, continued to expand his game and became an even more important player for the Golden Eagles.
Anim will play his final two home games for MU (17-9, 7-7 Big East) this week, starting on Wednesday night against Georgetown (15-12, 5-9) at Fiserv Forum.
Ask any person involved with the MU program about Anim, and the answers invariably include stories about his work ethic.
Early mornings at the Al McGuire Center doing shooting workouts with managers. Extra sets in the weight room. Late-night games of one-on-one against teammates.
“It's always been a part of me,” Anim said. “I've always been somebody that's been a gym rat. Knew what I wanted to do and always worked hard at it.
“Obviously, basketball has always been my passion. I've always been in the gym for hours. Elementary school, I was in the gym for hours just shooting and playing games, playing '21.' Working on my game. I've always just been attracted to the game.”
That capacity for self-improvement was ingrained in Anim by his family in the Minneapolis area.
“My brother, my mom and my dad — those guys really worked hard to get to where they are now,” Anim said. “So I kind of just learned that growing up from those guys and it's just been developing since then.”
Anim's athletic gifts were forged by his dad, Sam, and his brother, Rakim.
Sam Anim guided both his sons in youth sports.
“He's pretty known around the area as being that hard, tough-nosed coach,” Rakim Anim-Finney said. “I think he was the one who set the foundation for both of us as far as mentality, work ethic and all that kind of stuff.”
Anim-Finney, six years older than Sacar, is a well-known fitness trainer. He honed his techniques on his younger brother, always a willing pupil.
“We'd be grinding and putting in work," Anim-Finney said.
Sam was a four-year starter on the basketball team at DeLaSalle High School, winning the state title in 1988. Sacar gravitated to hoops as well, even though he was a promising wide receiver in football.
But when Sacar decided to attend DeLaSalle like his father, he threw everything he had into basketball.
“I kind of let him make that decision,” Sam said. “And one thing I did for him is say ‘If you are going to just do basketball, you're going to put a lot of your effort into it.' "
Sacar won four state titles at DeLaSalle, finding ways to get on the court alongside several future NCAA Division 1 players. He wasn't a heralded recruit, but MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski saw something in Anim.
"He comes from a family of very hardworking people," Wojciechowski said. "He went to a really good high school program where he was coached hard and the expectation of bringing your lunch pail and working every day was there.
"And then I think he had the drive to prove people wrong. There were a lot of people that recruited him that said that he may not be able to play at this level."
Sacar arrived at MU the day after graduating from high school and got to work. It looked like he would find a role as a freshman, but he only played 5.2 minutes per game. He channeled his frustration into getting better during his redshirt year. He also followed the sage advice of his father.
"We always say 'Take the steps, not the elevator,' " Sam said. "That was always our mind-set: ‘If you have to get up there, every ladder that you climb, there's a dozen people waiting for the elevator.' That was the quote.
"Like, take the steps. Follow the steps to success and let the rest happen. He always took the steps to success. That's kind of where he's always had it, that mentality, that he always had something to prove to everybody.”
Anim built himself into an indispensable player for the Golden Eagles, averaging 12.8 points per game and drawing tough defensive assignments while showing remarkable improvements in three-point shooting and ball-handling.
He's a throwback player, sticking around for five years while the easier path to playing time would have been transferring.
“Definitely my teammates were a big part of it," he said. "Just that connection I have with those guys. I just knew that I didn't want to give that up, because that was something special. Obviously my relationship with the coaching staff is something that's always been a big part.
"Also my connection to Milwaukee in general. I feel like this has been my home for so long, I knew it would be tough to give that up. Especially, I knew that if I worked at it I would create an opportunity for myself.”