Anim thrives as Golden Eagles’ glue guy
Every good basketball team needs a “glue player.” The jack-of-all-trades type who fills in around the other pieces.
Junior guard Sacar Anim is that player for Marquette, which is ranked 11th in the USA Today coaches men’s poll and No. 12 by the Associated Press.
When the Golden Eagles (16-3, 5-1 Big East) face DePaul (11-6, 3-3) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Fiserv Forum, the 6foot-5 Anim likely will have a bigger impact than his 7.6 points and 3.1 rebounds per game suggest.
Sometimes, his importance will be obvious. Like the back-to-back plays late in the first half against Providence when Anim had a highlight-reel assist to Ed Morrow Jr. and then, 20 seconds later, drew a charge.
Other times, Anim’s efforts won’t make the box score. Like when he chased Seton Hall’s Myles Powell through a maze of screens and forced the high-scoring guard to give up the ball on a crucial possession late in MU’s victory Jan. 12. Or when Anim seamlessly stepped in to help Sam Hauser with ball-handling duties after Markus Howard exited with back issues early in the victory over Georgetown last week.
“Just being able to have the allaround game,” Anim said of his role. “Be able to do whatever my team needs for us to get a ‘W.’ “
MU coach Steve Wojciechowski definitely notices Anim’s contributions.
“I think Sacar is a winner,” Wojciechowski said. “He’s a very versatile player. His improvement since the day he stepped on campus to this point has been phenomenal.”
Anim is uniquely qualified to be a “glue guy.” He was the same type of player at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, where he won four straight state championships on some loaded teams.
“He’s not coming from a normal highschool situation,” said Dave Thorson, Anim’s coach of DeLaSalle and is now an assistant at Colorado State. “He played with Reid Travis (now at Kentucky). He played with Geno Crandall (now at Gonzaga). He played with Jarvis Johnson (who was set to play at Minnesota before being sidelined by a heart condition). Goanar Mar, a two-year starter at George Mason.
“Literally I had seven Division 1 players. So sometimes you look at a kid’s numbers and go, ‘That’s not very impressive.’ You got to remember who he was playing with.”
Anim had to find ways to make himself invaluable. He starred as a defender at first. After Travis and Crandall graduated, Anim became a primary scorer as a senior.
“I’ve always played with great players around me,” Anim said. “Just knowing how to play off other people, be unselfish and know how to share the ball and everything.”
While Anim was somewhat of an unheralded recruit, Wojciechowski saw the intangibles the player would bring.
“Wojo deserves a lot of credit,” Thorson said. “For really observing who Sacar really is. Sacar is a winner. He’s a competitor. He’s always been like that.”
Anim played sparingly as a freshman at MU in the 2015-’16 season. He decided to redshirt the next season to get stronger. When he returned to the court last season, he instantly became the Golden Eagles’ defensive stopper.
His role has expanded this season, although at heart he is a defender. That’s important for MU in a conference loaded with elite guards.
“I always start with the defensive end,” Anim said. “Because I know my duty is to stop the best players, so I got to take pride in that.
“I know it’s going to help our team. Put us in a better position to win.”
That attitude also came from DeLaSalle.
“Coach Thorson is really big into defense,” Anim said. “I played on the best guys in high school, too. I’ve done it since as long as I’ve been playing basketball. He had me picking up the ball 94 feet.”
Anim is mostly a slasher on offense, although he has improved as a threepoint shooter.
“Just from having to guard him here and there in practice, he’s a hard man to guard,” Hauser said. “He shows it. He’s really good at driving the ball and when he gets in there he makes the right play most of the time. Kicking it out or finishing. He’s just an overall great player.”
That’s just part of what makes Anim an ideal glue guy.
“If you need a guy to take a charge to win the game, he’s going to do that,” Thorson said. “If you need a guy to make a three to win the game, he’s going to do that. If you need a guy to pass to Markus Howard seven times, he’s going to do that.
“Because at the end of the day, he’s wired from a competitive perspective that way. And that’s why he’s such a special kid.”