BANGOR, Maine — As the spring recruiting season begins to wind down, there’s one key roster spot Husson University men’s basketball coach Warren Caruso won’t have to fill next season.
Senior guard Raheem Anderson, the reigning North Atlantic Conference Player of the Year and D3Hoops.com All-America honorable mention who led the Eagles to a 21-7 record and a berth in the NCAA Division III national tournament last winter, has been granted a medical hardship waiver to return to the team for a fifth season.
Under NCAA rules, a player may be eligible for a medical hardship waiver if he or she plays in fewer than 30 percent of a team’s games or three contests, whichever is greater, in a given season; suffers the injury or illness during the first half of the schedule; and is sidelined for the rest of that season.
Anderson played eight games as a freshman for Husson before suffering a broken ankle during Christmas vacation in 2013, sidelining him for the rest of the season.
Caruso filed documentation on Anderson’s behalf at the end of the 2016-2017 campaign and received word from the conference this week that the Mirimar, Florida, product has been cleared to play next winter.
“It’s all about a starting place, and having Raheem as part of that starting place is a real important piece of the puzzle for us,” said Caruso, who had anticipated that Anderson would be granted the waiver. “It gives us what we think is one of the top players in the country, and with that it gives us an opportunity to compete for a NAC championship again and, if we’re fortunate enough to win the NAC championship, an opportunity to go back to the nationals.
The 6-foot-1-inch, 170-pound Anderson also was named first-team All-NAC for the second straight year and was the NAC tournament MVP. He was recognized as the Eastern College Athletic Conference Player of the Year and named first-team ECAC All-New England, second-team D3hoops.com All-Northeast and first-team National Association of Basketball Coaches’ Division III All-Northeast District after helping the Eagles win their sixth NAC championship in nine years.
Anderson’s statistics ranked him among the top 10 in Division III in five categories — first in field-goal attempts (558), second in points (737) and field goals made (242) and fifth in scoring average (26.3) and free throws made (177).
In 91 career games, Anderson has scored 1,881 points (20.7 ppg).
