Overview:
Cole Anderson will face his old high school coach on Wednesday night when Vance Walberg leads Fresno State into the Thunderdome
Cole Anderson toes basketball’s three-point line like it’s the arc of life.
It’s why the sharp-shooting guard came to UC Santa Barbara … and why he stayed when his hometown beckoned him home.
He’s found a pot o’ gold at the end of that Thunderdome rainbow, both in the games and friendships won.
“This place has everything to offer,” Anderson said. “It has the basketball, it has the school, it has the beach … and the chemistry here is all good.”
The 6-foot-4 senior has marked the progress of Gaucho basketball by the improvements coach Joe Pasternack brings to the Thunderdome every year.
They’ve ranged from a new $2.5 million video board, to the remodeled locker and shower rooms, to the film-room theater and Founders Room lounge, to the practice facility on the second deck.
The final sections of new chairback seating that UCSB installed last year were filled with fans for this season’s opener against San Francisco State.
“Every year, I feel like something new has come in,” Anderson said. “We’ve got great donors here and coach P is on top of that.
“I feel like it’s getting better and better every year.
“And honestly, I’m going to feel sad to leave this place after this season.”
He was admittedly sad — addled “at first by homesickness during my freshman year” — when he left Fresno for Santa Barbara in the fall of 2021.
But watching this year’s freshmen goof with each other reminds Anderson of how quickly that melancholy dissipated.
“They’re a funny group,” he said of a trio that includes Bryce Begood, ZZ (Zachariah) Clark and Zion Sensley. “There are three of them and they’re always together, doing stuff together.
“They kind of remind me of my freshman class … We had six guys who were always together, looking to do new stuff, trying to meet new people.
“It’s a good sign these new guys are trying to do that, too. I mean, it’s good to be out and experiencing college a little.”
It’s also a good sign that four of Anderson’s five buddies from his own freshman year — Ariel Bland, David Pickles, Henry Hartwell and Max Sheldon — remain in the Gaucho family.
Ajay of Happiness
It took the strong gust of the NBA draft to carry away the fifth classmate.
Ajay Mitchell, who was only a junior last year when the Oklahoma City Thunder drafted him in the second round, has played in every game this season for the NBA’s 8-1, Western Conference power.
His 12-point, seven-assist performance in Friday’s win over the Houston Rockets comes as no surprise to Anderson.
“I’ve played with him in hundreds of practices and every time he’d do something crazy that would make me think, ‘This guy is really good,’” he said. “The world will find out soon enough that the Thunder got a real steal with him in the second round.
“He should’ve gone way higher, but they’ll be talking about that by the end of this season.”
He talks with Mitchell by phone most days.
“We’re pretty much best friends, and we talk about a lot of stuff,” Anderson said. “We try to keep basketball a little to the side and get away from the stress and stuff.
“But he knows what he needs to do … and I know what I need to do.”
Next on Anderson’s to-do list is a game against his hometown team. Fresno State will visit the Thunderdome at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The Bulldogs made the matchup even more intriguing by hiring Vance Walberg, Anderson’s former coach at Clovis West High School, as their new head coach.
Anderson has long credited Walberg’s role in his development.
“We won a lot, and most important the practices prepared me for college practices,” he said during an interview last season.
“His approach was to be hard on me, which I think prepared me for college, as well.”
Three-for-All
Anderson made 464 career three-pointers during four varsity seasons at Clovis West to rank third in the California Interscholastic Federation record books.
He set a state record in 2021 when he sank 10 consecutive threes during a game in which he scored a school-record 51 points.
Walberg, in a gesture of sportsmanship to the opposing team, sat him for the entire fourth quarter.
Anderson has made 157 out of 379 threes for his career through the first two games of this year.
His percentage of .414 currently ranks fifth all-time at UCSB.
He made 41.3% of his threes last year to rank 18th nationally. He’s the Gauchos’ top-returning scorer, having averaged 10.3 points per game last season.
“He’s been a 40% three-point shooter for three straight years, but he’s also really, really trying to become a complete player and not just a shooter,” Pasternack said. “He’s really taken ownership to compete on the defensive end, and that’s going to really help our team.
“He’s had a great summer and I’m really excited about him.”
Pasternack was especially delighted that Anderson resisted the prospect of a big payday at another school and kept his name out of the NCAA transfer portal.
The Bulldog Bread Collective, a booster group which provides NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) funding for Fresno State recruits, dangled that temptation in front of Anderson in a message that ESPN 1430 Radio posted last April on the social network X.
It contained an all-caps plea which said: “HEY COLE, IT’S TIME TO COME HOME AND BE A BULLDOG!”
The message, which was deleted a few days later, was headlined with Anderson’s full name and included a photograph of him dribbling a basketball for the Gauchos.
There was a lot that made him want to keep the ball rolling at UCSB.
“I was big on the UC degree coming in out of high school,” he said. “And it was also the guys coach P recruits.
“I think it’s really rare to have — year in and out — guys that you really like and mesh with.
“Going somewhere else, you never know what to expect.”
Roster Turnover
Pasternack restocked this year’s team with six transfers: Chris Mitchell from Cal State San Bernardino, Max Murrell from Stanford, Kenny Pohto from Wichita State, Colin Smith from Vanderbilt, Stephan Swenson from Stetson, and Deuce Turner from the University of San Diego.
The new pieces have connected so far like a set of Legos.
“I think I can compare this year’s team to our NCAA Tournament year when I was a sophomore,” Anderson said. “It’s been easy for us to mesh on the court as well as off the court.
“Guys are willing to hang out and stuff and be together off the court, which I think is rare and really needed for basketball teams.”
The large influx of new players prompted Pasternack to arrange team social events last summer.
They included a bowling night, a sailing trip, and even a downtown excursion to The House of Clues Escape Room downtown.
But the more informal gatherings, Anderson observed, have been the most effective.
“Obviously you can set up team-bonding activities and stuff like that, but if you’re not hanging out with each other on your own, it doesn’t really work,” he said. “We hang out a lot and I think it transitions well to the court … Our chemistry is good.
“We’ve been going at it since summer, and it’s been really competitive in practice, but we’re still friends off the court. That’s a good combination.”
Bounce-Back Season
The Gauchos weren’t as connected last year, finishing with records of 16-15 overall and 9-11 in the Big West Conference.
It marked Pasternack’s first losing season in league since he took over as head coach seven years ago.
UCSB had set a school record the previous season with a 27-8 mark and the Big West’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
“We were all locked in that whole season and really knew what our goal was,” Anderson said. “We let that slip away from us last year by feeling like it would be handed to us.
“Our team didn’t really mesh that well, and Ajay was battling injuries for so long that we really weren’t able to all practice together too much.
“A lot of guys were worried about outside noise and stuff like that, too … But this year, we’re more of a fist than just a hand.”
Swenson was recruited to point the way as lead guard after having guided Stetson to its first NCAA Tournament appearance last year.
“Steph is a great guy and I love playing with him,” Anderson said. “It did take a little bit of time for him to mesh with the team, but that’s obviously normal … We’re playing together now and really clicking.
“He has a lot of similarities to Ajay. The fans will see that as we’re playing.
“He’s a selfless guy, he’s a great leader, he’s got great vision … and he can score, too.”
He’s one in a flock of three-point-shooting newcomers that includes Murrell, Smith and Turner.
Pasternack believes the long shots can take the Gauchos a long way this season.
“It was tough last year just because of our lack of three-point threats,” he said. “But I think Cole’s going to have a really good year with the players he has around him now.”
And that’s no matter if they’re playing a game of basketball or “House of Clues.”
