Jesuit alumnus Bennett Andersen gets his 1 shining moment with Gators

GAINESVILLE — In the wake of the most glorious moment of his basketball life, a surreal sequence on a national stage that captured the stirring essence of March, Bennett Andersen’s cell phone blew up.

His head never did.

Roughly 27 hours after his viral moment in the SEC tournament semifinals, there was Andersen, unloading bags from the University of Florida’s charter plane upon its arrival back in Gainesville early Sunday evening. March Madness supplanted by March menial. Hey, this is what Andersen does.

Before earning a gig last season as a Gators walk-on guard, the Jesuit High alumnus spent three years as a team manager.

“That’s the guy,” Gators sophomore forward Thomas Haugh said.

“I wasn’t even here when he got here; obviously he’s been here (as) the team manager and stuff, but we just know how every day he brings it to practice. He’s a super cool dude, even watches some film and helps us cut stuff up (on video) for the coaches as a player and a manager. ... He’s a really good guy for our program, and I was so happy to see him get another bucket.”

That bucket, with 19 seconds to play in Saturday’s SEC semifinal against Alabama, arguably was the most celebrated of the day by the Gators bench. In his seventh appearance of the season, Andersen took a pass near the top of the key, drove with his left hand past an on-ball Crimson Tide defender, dashed through the lane and slipped a left-handed layup beneath the outstretched arm of a late-arriving defender.

It was his first basket of the season.

“It was honestly a really awesome drive: same-hand, same-side finish,” Gators coach Todd Golden said. “They still had some really good players out there, and he was able to put it in. And fortunately for him, it’s a memory that he’ll have for the rest of his life.”

This time of year, shining moments come in all sizes, and vary in emotional textures. There are the clutch ones (Michael Jordan’s game-winner in the 1982 national title game) and the compelling ones (Loyola Chicago’s Final Four run in 2018), the poignant ones (Jim Valvano looking for someone to hug in 1983) and the personal ones.

Slot Andersen’s in the latter bin. It won’t make CBS' glossy montage of riveting March moments, and when this banner season for UF is finished, it barely will register as a footnote. All it really does is serve as an uplifting reminder that in this current climate of college athletics — with portals and pay-for-play, rogue boosters and roster management — a Rudy can resurface every now and again.

“Yeah, it felt awesome,” said Andersen, a graduate student, Tuesday. “I was pretty overstimulated. Like, my phone was going crazy for three days — it still kind of is. But just super fun.”

A co-valedictorian of Jesuit’s 2020 graduating class, Andersen was a three-year varsity player and two-year starter for the Tigers' basketball team. Jesuit posted 20 wins in both of his seasons as a starter, but couldn’t get past bitter rival Tampa Catholic, then led by fledgling low-post force of nature Johni Broome.

“Just the highest of character, top notch,” longtime Tigers coach Neal Goldman said. “A great leader and just a great role model, great example.”

Andersen arrived in Gainesville as a National Merit Scholar and landed a team manager gig through a divine connection of sorts. Father Richard Hermes, Tampa Jesuit’s president at the time, had struck up a relationship with then-Gators coach Mike White when the former was a teacher and the latter a student at Jesuit High School New Orleans in the mid-1990s.

And so it went, Andersen pursuing his undergraduate degree in industrial and systems engineering, and indulging his hoops passion with intramural ball (his team won three titles) and his manager’s gig.

“In between my second and third year, when the coaching change (from White to Golden) happened and when some of these assistants came in, we would play pickup in the mornings before practice or anything like that,” Andersen recalled. “And so I was scoring a lot against them and they noticed I could play.”

When Golden arrived in 2022, Andersen’s third year as a manager, he was permitted to play on the scout team during practice.

“Obviously he started as a manager and had such a good attitude and approach on a daily basis that we thought he could help us in practice, with the intensity and just kind of his approach,” Golden said.

The following season, Golden offered Andersen a spot as a walk-on. He was granted the No. 22 jersey, chosen because his dad, Carter — who got a law degree from UF — was a huge fan of iconic Gators tailback Emmitt Smith. He made four mop-up appearances in the 2023-24 season, scoring once on a layup (via a backdoor cut) against Grambling.

Soon, Goldman began to monitor Gator games, hoping for late lopsided margins that would afford his former pupil the chance to appear. UF’s student section roared when he was inserted, pining for a basket that would ignite bedlam in the waning seconds.

Alas, it never came in this, Andersen’s final season. A prime opportunity presented itself on senior night, when he was inserted for the last 48 seconds of a 90-71 romp of Ole Miss, but his turnaround jumper in the paint rimmed out.

“The clip of the bench is like, insane on that one, too,” Andersen said. “So when that one (against Ole Miss) happened, I sent it to the team and I was like, ‘Thank you guys, y’all are the best. I wish it went in, but thanks for the reaction.‘ ”

Exactly one week later, before an ESPN audience, in a game that almost certainly clinched a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seeding for the Gators, the opportunity arose again.

And a lopsided moment became a shining one.

“Even when I was a manager it was all worth it, just getting to travel and have a relationship with these coaches and everything,” said Andersen, who joins the team in Raleigh, North Carolina, for its NCAA first-rounder Friday against Norfolk State.

“But it’s definitely been like, times 10 worth it now, after all this has happened. Making the (NCAA) tournament last year, being as good as we’ve been this year, having a moment like that, yeah.”

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.

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