CHICAGO -- Jolene Anderson doesn't like winning individual awards.
Never has, never will.
So even though the University of Wisconsin women's basketball team's senior guard figured one was coming her way Sunday morning, she wasn't exactly jumping out of her shoes on the early-morning drive down from Madison to the Chicago Marriott O'Hare hotel for the Big Ten Conference's media day.
And sure enough, when Anderson rolled in after the 2-hour van trip, she learned she had been picked as the Big Ten's preseason player of the year by the conference's coaches and a 22-member media panel. "I wasn't looking forward to it," the 5-foot-8 Port Wing native said. "I thought, 'It would come out when it comes out.' And if it didn't happen, it didn't happen. So you've just got to live with it."
Anderson, who was the only member of either of last year's first-team all-conference team returning after Purdue's Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton injured her knee in the summer, also was the only unanimous selection on both the coaches' and media's preseason all-league teams.
ADVERTISEMENT
Anderson said she thought about the prospect of being tabbed for the honor after Wisdom-Hylton was hurt, while the pair was playing for the United States at this summer's FIBA under-21 World Championships in Moscow. And while Anderson said she was "honored to get it," she was much more eager Sunday to talk about the Badgers' prospects as a team -- UW was picked to finish second in the Big Ten by the coaches and third by the media after tying for fifth last year with a 7-9 league mark.
"Every individual goal that I get is kind of awkward because I play a team sport," said Anderson, who led the Big Ten in scoring during conference play last year with 309 points (19.3 per game). "It's not like I go out for track or anything like that. So I would like to see it as a team award, but it's not. So I've just to take it in stride and just not let it bother me."
That's how Anderson always has been. She says her modesty came from the way her parents, Jim and Julie, raised her.
"It's not about her," Badgers coach Lisa Stone said. "It never has been. It's about the team. When she leaves here, she'll be the most decorated Wisconsin women's basketball (player) in the history of the program. That comes with her name, but what she wants is for the team to do well. It's always been about the team."
Three-time defending conference champion Ohio State was picked to repeat in both polls, while Michigan State, which finished third last season, edged UW in the media voting.
"This is their year," Purdue coach Sharon Versyp said of the Badgers, who return 13 players after finishing 23-13. "They went far last year and they have the seniors to do it. So I think they are, I feel, the lead."
-- Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune
Information Services
