And did he ever claim the Bennett family pool?
“Unfortunately, no,” he said with a laugh. “My mom won most of them. I don’t know how she always knew, but she could find the dark horses and the upsets.
“My mom was definitely the one to beat.”
Last year, when Bennett finally was playing college basketball himself, he led Merrimack College to the Northeast Conference Tournament title with a 67-66 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson. But rather than get the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, Merrimack was bypassed and FDU got the invite.
Merrimack was in the process of making the transition from a Division II to a Division I program and still was not eligible to play in the postseason tournament.
Bennett — the freshman point guard who was listed in the program as 5-foot-10 — had had a stellar season for the Warriors. He led the nation in steals, was named the Rookie of the Year in the NEC and made the all-tournament team.
Getting bumped aside by Mom was one thing, but red-tape rejection was hard to accept.
“It had been tough playing the championship game knowing — win or lose — our season was over,” he said. “But we still won and then the team we beat got to celebrate.”
After that he said he couldn’t bring himself to watch the tournament selection show last year.
When FDU came to Dayton and thumped Texas Southern in the First Four, Bennett said he and his teammates weren’t watching either: “It was just too hard.”
That First Four triumph then pitted No. 16 seed FDU against No. 1 Purdue.
“We watched that one and we kept thinking, ‘That should be us, except for some unfortunate circumstances,’” Bennett said.
When FDU stunned the college basketball world and edged the Boilermakers — becoming just the second 16 seed in tournament history to beat a No. 1 — it was all too much for Bennett.
FDU suddenly was the Cinderella of the NCAA Tournament and Merrimack was turned into an after-midnight pumpkin.
“The whole thing was bittersweet,” Bennett said. “And that became one of the big reasons I decided to transfer. I was afraid that what I wanted in my future, I couldn’t get where I was.”
He got offers from a few other schools — including Jacksonville and Stetson, which are both close to his family in Orlando — but he visited Dayton first and felt like he had found his hoops home.
Not only did he like the team, facilities, and school, but he thought UD gave him the best chance at making the NCAA Tournament.
‘Mike is the guy!’
Bennett’s past NCAA Tournament luck almost followed him this year.
Coming into a late regular season game at Loyola, the Flyers — thanks in a big way to Benett’s handling of the point guard duties after Malachi Smith had been lost for the season with a knee injury seven minutes into the November opener — were in good shape for a bid.
They were 22-5 and ranked No. 21 in the nation.
But late in the first half, Bennett went grasping for an errant pass that was headed out of bounds and his left thumb got caught in his jersey and was ripped backward.
“I’d done that before a couple of times and it stings a little bit, but I’d never done it to this extent,” he said. “At halftime my adrenaline started wearing off and my thumb started to swell up and it got a little purple.
“I got back to the court early with Mike (Mulcahey), our trainer, to see if I could catch and use my thumb, but it really wasn’t doing well and that’s when they told me I couldn’t play. It was bad timing, but there was nothing I could do.”
UD lost that March 1 game and, once back in Dayton, Bennett said he got an MRI.
“They found out I had a slight tear in one of my ligaments and I’d sprained another one — my UCL — on the other side,” he said. “They gave me a timeline of 1 to 4 weeks until I could play again.”
Bennett was worried.
Four weeks would sideline him until at least the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
“I tried to take it day by day and do whatever Mike and the doctors wanted,” Bennett said. “The first job was to get the swelling out and then I had to get my strength back. I did that with gripping exercises, stretching my fingers, things like that.
“After that they wanted to see how I could catch the ball with the splint I got.”
Last Wednesday — the day before the Flyers’ Atlantic 10 Tournament opener against Duquesne at the Barclays Center —– Bennett practiced with the team in Brooklyn and said it went well.
Fitted with a small brace to protect his thumb from bending back, he was cleared to play, but the Flyers still stumbled against the Dukes and lost, 65-57.
Since then, Bennett has continued to get treatments on his thumb, and he has nothing but praise for the Mulcahey.
“I’d always heard stories about Mike — about what he’s done when guys like Mali and Koby Brea had surgeries — and they all told me, ‘Mike is the guy!’
“With me never really having been injured before I didn’t realize how important he was until I got hurt. I was in the training room with him three and four hours a day and he made sure I got back.
“All the credit goes to Mike and the ladies he works with.”
‘Living that dream’
Bennett sat with his teammates in the Connor Flight Deck for the Selection Sunday show and as they waited and waited and waited for their name to be called, he started to wonder if this was another NCAA Tournament near miss:
“I was sitting next to Nate (Santos) and Deuce (Daron Holmes II) and we were all getting a little antsy. We were like ‘When are we gonna get picked? Are we gonna get picked?’
As the No. 7 seed in the West Regional, they were the fourth last team announced.
“I can’t tell you how great it was hearing your name called and seeing it go up there in the bracket,” Bennett said. “That’s what you dream about as a kid and now we’re living that dream.”
As soon as he got back to his apartment, he said his family called him:
“They were so excited. They were like ‘We’re going to Utah, Baby!’”
Nevada has a sizeable backcourt — point guard Kenan Blackshear is 6-foot-6 and Jarod Lucas is 6-4 — but that doesn’t faze Bennett.
He’s played against bigger guards his entire life and has handled himself pretty well this season.
He started 28 of 29 games and is second on the team in steals and assists and fifth (8.9 points per game) in scoring.
As far as the family NCAA Tournament pool goes, he said he doesn’t care if his mom wins again.
This year — when it comes to the NCAA Tournament — he finally knows he’s a big winner.
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