By Dave Goldstein
Enquirer contributor

TORONTO - In 1996, Derek Anderson started for a Kentucky squad that was one of the deepest teams in NCAA history, but one many tabbed as destined to underachieve. That team had too many good players and too few shots and minutes to go around, the sentiment went. But Anderson didn't complain - he played his 19 minutes a game and turned a meager six shot attempts per contest into more than nine points for a team that put egos aside and won the NCAA championship.

Today Anderson finds himself on a Portland Trail Blazers team facing similar challenges. Portland features Anderson, Bonzi Wells, Damon Stoudamire, Antonio Daniels and Jeff McInnis - and those are just the guards. Portland also boasts a slew of talented forwards and space-eating centers yet has underachieved. The Blazers won fewer than 50 games last season and were swept by the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.

With all the talent at his disposal, Portland coach Maurice Cheeks has had a difficult assignment deciding to whom to give the bulk of the minutes. But like Rick Pitino before him, Cheeks knows that in Anderson he has a player who will give it his all regardless of the circumstances.

"Derek's not a guy that worries about little things," Cheeks said. "He's a guy that comes out and focuses on what he's got to do, whether he's playing 10 minutes or 45. He's not going to play every game perfectly and he's not going to make every shot, but he always tries. He puts his time in and he gives his best effort."

Anderson's effort has yielded 34 minutes, 15 points and almost five assists a game on the season, including starts in all 22 of his appearances.

Despite having three solid point guards on the roster, Cheeks has gone with a bigger backcourt of Wells and Anderson. They have shared the traditional point guard duties with Scottie Pippen, and the move seems to be working well enough to become permanent. Sure, Anderson could get more shots and earn more acclaim in a different system, but he stopped worrying about things like that a long time ago.

After going 15-67 in his only season with the Los Angeles Clippers, Anderson told SLAM Magazine that every player should have to go through a season like that to fully appreciate whatever successes he later achieves. A number of those Clippers gave up on the team to pad their own stats, something Anderson hopes to prevent in Portland. But it might not be so easy to meld the egos of the Trail Blazers as it was with the Wildcats.

"Now there are a lot more meaningful things to deal with as far as contracts and things like that, whereas in college guys just wanted to play," Anderson said. "But I'm not going to start worrying about my own numbers and my own issues. I saw how it can disrupt a team, and I don't want to fall into that - hopefully the other guys won't either."

The Trail Blazers have won eight of their last 10 games, thanks in part to their unassuming shooting guard. In the fourth quarter of a battle with the Toronto Raptors, Anderson recovered a loose ball and, seemingly the only player aware of a dwindling shot clock, fired a dead-eye 26-foot jumper that broke open the game. Two weeks later, Anderson drilled a 3 with 1.4 seconds left to defeat the Seattle Supersonics 81-80. It has been the kind of run that brings back memories of that Kentucky team, the members of which are still close.

"We speak to each other as often as we can," Anderson said. "When we're in each others' towns we hang out, go to each other's houses. We all still have really close relationships with one another."