Oct. 22, 2010

By Malcolm Butler,
Louisiana Tech Media Relations

RUSTON, La. -- Tavasha Anderson is a bit of a mystery to Louisiana Tech fans, and rightly so.

Although the 6-foot-3-inch Lady Techster forward has been on the LA Tech campus for more than a year now, she has yet to see any game action after red-shirting last year due to an injury stemming from her senior season at Grenada High School in Mississippi.

And although her story isn't unique, it's one that Tech fans hope has a happy ending. Anderson is working hard this fall to make sure it does.

The summer before her senior year in high school, Anderson began feeling significant pain in her shin.

"Everyone said it was shin splints and not to worry about it," Anderson said. "I got to the point where every step hurt. I was hiding it from my mom, my coaches; only a couple of friends knew. I was taking Ibuprofen to get through practice every day."

In the first game of her senior year at Grenada, Anderson played through the pain and fell just one blocked shot shy of recording a triple double. It was an incredible performance, but it would be her last for quite some time.

"After the game I could barely put pressure on it and had to be helped to the locker room," said Anderson. "One of my friends told my coach I had been hiding it. My mom made an appointment with my orthopedic doctor the next day."

Anderson left the doctor's office on crutches and wearing a boot, and for the next three months reverted to being a cheerleader on the sidelines. It was an unfamiliar role, and looking back, Anderson wishes she had taken a different path.

"The doctor suggested (from day one) doing the same surgery that we did this past year, but I was stubborn," Anderson said. "He gave me the option of surgery or staying completely off of it for two to three months. I said I would stay off of it, but I didn't. I was walking on it, shooting around, not doing was I was supposed to do.

"Towards the end of the season, he said there was a chance I could play in the playoffs. Of course I told him I didn't feel any pain. I played the last three or four games and then went through track season. I competed in the shot put and discus. I was not running so I didn't feel much. However, when I got (to Louisiana Tech) and we started preseason and pounding every day that same pain came back again."

So finally on the advice of Louisiana Tech team orthopedic doctor William Bundrick and head coach Teresa Weatherspoon, Anderson relented and went under the knife November 11 to have a titanium rod inserted into her left leg to provide support for the stress fracture in her shin.

Anderson sat out for two months following the surgery while rehabbing alongside Tech assistant athletic's trainer Michele Dummett. She was simply biding her time until she could rejoin her teammates.

After getting clearance from her doctors to begin working out again in early January, Anderson returned to practice - which meant competing on a daily basis with two-time Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year Shanavia Dowdell.

"I learned a lot last season watching Shanavia," Anderson said. "Once I got back to practice, I was the one who was competing against her every day to make her stronger. At the same time, I was learning because she was always talking to me. `Vasha, make sure you do this. Vasha, don't let me do this. Vasha, you should do it this way.'

"I learned a lot last year practicing against her. I was thrilled learning from her and getting better at the same time."

Anderson had both the luxury and the challenge of learning from one of the best post players to ever don a Lady Techster jersey - quite a statement for a program that claims 16 Kodak All-Americans and 39 career 1,000-point scorers.

"In practice if she did something wrong, I would stop her and correct her so she would know what to do when the time came again," said Dowdell, who is now playing professionally overseas in France. "When we would go against each other in practice, I would try to be as hard as possible on her because once the games start, she will need to be a tough player. I was one of the more physical players in the conference so what better person for her to go up against every day in practice. I didn't take it easy on her. I always went strong."

Weatherspoon said that those daily battles between Anderson and Dowdell will only benefit her this season and for the next four years.

"Tavasha's confidence level has changed," Weatherspoon said. "She believes in herself more than in the past. I think last year due to her injury she had a grand opportunity to practice against Shanavia every day once she got healthy, and to sit and understand the system. That has helped her tremendously as she is now playing with a great deal of confidence and poise. She knows what she brings to this team."

Anderson and Dowdell, who both claim to be best of friends, still talk almost on a daily basis despite being thousands of miles apart.

"I talk to her every few days," Anderson said. "She always asks me how basketball is going. She tells me to keep pushing. She knows I can do it. Her believing in me and staying in contact with me has helped a lot. She still has a role in my life and she continues to push me.

"The best thing is she didn't look at me simply as competition. She looked at me as a younger player trying to become what she was. During practice she would instruct me. It might be a pickup game without the coaches, and we would be playing against each other. Although she was playing against me, she would tell me to cut this way or to cut me off before I do this. So as we were playing, I was learning and getting better. She was coming at me hard and pushing me hard, but she was still teaching me at the same time. I couldn't have asked for a better role model to have in front of me to learn from."

Dowdell said she appreciates where Anderson was and currently is in her college career as she thinks back on her first few years as a Lady Techster.

"When I was a true freshman and played against Tamika (Kursh) and Ty (Moore), I was scared and nervous," Dowdell said. "You can tell that Tavasha was that way last year. She was not as physical (as she can be), and you could see room for improvement. I see a lot of myself as a freshman in her. If she keeps working, she'll get there. I talk to her still and tell her to keep going strong; to try to push through practice to the end."

That friendship off the court and mentor-protégé relationship on the court is something that puts a smile on Weatherspoon's face. However, she made sure that Anderson understood that no one on the coaching staff or the team expects her to be Shanavia Dowdell.

"I thought it was important to have that conversation simply because she practiced against her every day, they were great friends and she wanted to be just like Shanavia," Weatherspoon said. "I wanted her to understand that it's not about coming in here and being Shanavia. I want her to be Tavasha Anderson. How do we do that? We work hard every day.

"Shanavia taught her a lot of things which was great because she has brought them back this fall. The greatest thing about Tavasha is she is a true center, yet she can face up and shoot the basketball. She could be our go-to player (eventually); that inside-outside traditional style of basketball. That is why I wanted to have that conversation with her. I told her, `You bring what you bring. Don't try to be somebody else.' I want Tavasha Anderson to be the best Tavasha Anderson possible."

Anderson said she heard her coach, loud and clear.

"Of course there is a lot of pressure, but I don't let it consume me anymore," Anderson said. "This summer I kept thinking about it. Coach Spoon had some conversations with me. I told Coach, `I hear what you are telling me and the players are telling me, yet the expectations are still there.' I know now that all I can do is everything in my power to fulfill my expectations. It might take a while, but I'm doing the best I can and I will continue to just that."

Now almost a year removed from the procedure and almost two years removed from the last time she stepped on the court for an organized game, Anderson is back on the floor with the rest of her Lady Techster teammates preparing for the Nov. 13 season opener against Prairie View A&M.

"I'm excited and nervous at the same time," said Anderson about the upcoming season opener. "The nervousness is slowly going away. My teammates are wonderful. I'll talk to my teammates and say `Oh, I'm nervous. What's going to happen?' They tell me not to worry about it, and just go out and play. Small words of encouragement make it better."

They may be small words but they loom large for Louisiana Tech's one true big body inside with the departure of Dowdell to the professional ranks. Anderson, who says she is at about 85 percent, has set some pretty big goals for herself heading into the year.

"My goal is to become a presence in the paint for this team," Anderson said. "My personal goal is to become the freshman of the year (in the WAC). That is my goal. For our team to be successful, I have to be a presence in the paint. I know that, and I'm working on that every day in practice."

Although she might still be a bit of an unknown entity heading into the season, Anderson wants to make a name for herself while helping LA Tech return to the NCAA Tournament in March. She wants to do her part for her teammates and coaches who have been by her side throughout her struggles.

"We are not just a team, we are a family," Anderson said. "When one person is going though something, we all feel it."

Come March, Tavasha Anderson will be a mystery no more.