Some players get thrown off their game when they get, um, ticked off. Others raise it a level, or two, or more.
Evidence of the latter? You’ll see it on Channel 2 on Friday afternoon, a little after 4 p.m., when Cal State Fullerton takes its shot at Duke in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Fullerton is there as Big West Tournament champion largely because power forward E.J. Anosike spent all last week steamed that someone else won the conference’s Player of the Year award. Colin Slater of regular-season champ Long Beach State (14.4 points, 39.7 percent 3-point shooting) finished first in the coaches’ voting. Anosike, a 6-foot-7 graduate transfer, won the Newcomer of the Year award for his 16.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 51.3% field goal marksmanship.
He considered it a consolation prize.
“There was nothing little about his frustration and his anger,” Titans coach Dedrique Taylor said. “Even Monday’s practice, after it came out that he wasn’t Player of the Year, we could feel it.
“But to his credit, he experienced that, he learned from it and he was on a mission.”
In three tournament games against UC Davis, Hawaii and Long Beach, Anosike averaged 36 minutes, 18 points, 13.7 rebounds and shot 54.8%. And when the Titans walked off with the championship, after Anosike’s 22 points (on 6-for-6 shooting) and eight rebounds in 39 minutes of the 72-71 title game victory over Long Beach, there was no doubt who deserved tournament MVP.
“I felt like I was the Player of the Year,” he said. “I felt like I worked hard. I was consistent and I performed to the level that I felt like I needed to perform, and I met all the qualifications to win the award. And when they told me that I didn’t get it, (that) they gave it to somebody else and they gave me Newcomer of the Year, I felt like they just gave me a second-place award.
“So that alone, I felt like people still doubted me no matter what. But I’m always going to be the underdog. ‘Cause like, all my life, I always missed out on the Player of the Year award. Always, I always got passed up. And then I came to this tournament (to) make a statement. I said I left it on me that I gave them doubt, for them to doubt me in not giving me the award. So I said after this tournament, (I’ll) make sure there is no doubt that I’m the best player in this conference and I’ll make sure there is no doubt we’re the best team in this conference.”
Sometimes you just need that extra motivation. But by now there should be little doubt about how much Anosike cares.
He played three seasons at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., averaging 15.7 points and 11.6 rebounds in 2019-20 and helping Sacred Heart reach 20 victories for the first time as a Division I program. He received his undergraduate degree that year and opted for Tennessee as a grad transfer.
“That was my dream school,” he said.
That might seem strange for a guy from East Orange, N.J., except that his older sister Nicky was a Lady Vol from 2004-08 and was part of two national championship teams under the late Pat Summitt. E.J. was a ballboy for those teams and heard a few of the Hall of Fame coachvs postgame talks, an early education in what it takes to be a champ.
He averaged 8.5 minutes, 1.7 points and 1.9 rebounds in 22 games at Tennessee in 2020-21, but playing in the Southeastern Conference further opened his eyes to what it takes to improve. Along the way, he earned a Master’s degree in agricultural and natural resource economics – “it’s a two-year program and I completed it in nine months,” he said – and realized there was still more to accomplish on the floor and in the classroom.
The extra season available to players because of COVID-19 gave him the opportunity, and he picked Fullerton largely because of a positive recommendation from friend Kyle Allman Jr., the leading scorer for the 2018 Big West Tournament champion Titans.
Anosike is working on a second Master’s at Fullerton, an MBA in management, and you could say he’s created his own internship.
“I started my own management company, A55 Life Management, to help mentor young high school kids, college kids and, you know, all my other friends who have aspirations to be actors, musicians, just helping get endorsements, brand deals and meet the right people,” he said. “That’s what I pride myself on, to help people any way I can.”
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Years after his basketball days end, those degrees will be beneficial. But the memories of this season at Fullerton will last – the emergence of a team that was picked to finish seventh in the conference by the coaches and eighth by media members in the preseason and played its best at the most important time, and the bond formed between teammates who shared both hard times and good times through the journey.
“We get to always live with this and tell our children,” Anosike said. “Once you get a championship, you’re bonded for life.”
In the meantime, the 15th-seeded Titans (21-10) will need every advantage they can get and more Friday against No. 2 seed Duke (28-6) and retiring coach Mike Krzyzewski, with a national audience and CBS’ No. 1 broadcast crew on site.
Hey, any chance of getting Anosike mad again?
@Jim_Alexander on Twitter