Grand Canyon University Athletics
Coro: Casey Benson comes home to GCU, brother
8/15/2017 10:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro
Casey Benson already lived a basketball dream with a hometown Final Four appearance this year, but his storybook finish is still to come.
After the Tempe, Ariz., product helped Oregon to the NCAA semifinals at University of Phoenix Stadium, Benson's thoughts quickly turned 9 miles east to the Grand Canyon campus where he now resides and plays.
A Havoc-hooking image of Benson in Lopes purple fell together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Casey graduated in three years, enabling a transfer with immediate eligibility. His older brother, T.J. Benson, is a GCU assistant men's basketball coach. The Lopes are planning for their first year of NCAA Division I tournament eligibility. GCU needed a point guard and leader to fill DeWayne Russell's void.
"It's amazing how all the stars aligned," Casey said.
The stars are lining up in the Lopes' backcourt, where Casey takes over the point alongside his former youth recreation league teammate, GCU shooting guard Josh Braun. Casey won three consecutive Arizona state championships at Corona del Sol High School and tallied the second-most wins in Ducks history (90), but he is just as enthralled about GCU's offering of family in town, faith on campus and freedom at the point.
It is a feel-good story to see Casey and T.J. standing side-by-side at practices, which the team started last week in preparation for three games on an Aug. 15-23 trip to Spain. T.J. and their soccer-playing sister, Holly, also started collegiate careers elsewhere before finishing at GCU --Â but not with the fanfare Casey brings to campus.
The Lopes landed a consummate point guard, a 6-foot-4 left-hander who led the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio as Oregon's starting point guard in 2015-16. He also brings reliable spot-shooting after making 40.5 percent of his 3-point tries for last season's Pac-12 champion. Collegiate one-year transfers can prove tricky, but Casey is a treat with the team-first approach and court intelligence to quickly fit in.
When Casey returned from Oregon to Arizona in recent summers, he spent his days at GCU playing pickup with some of the players who are now teammates.
"Going to the Final Four and Elite Eight (the past two seasons) were both so fun, but to be the first team in school history to go to the NCAA Tournament would be the same kind of thing," Casey said. "It'd be awesome to know that you blazed the trail for teams to come with so much momentum gaining, the crowd and the administration backing basketball."
Casey is all in, living on a college campus for the first time with teammates Fiifi Aidoo, Oscar Frayer and Ibrahima Sankare as roommates.
Casey, nine years younger than T.J., grew up intently watching – downright analyzing – each of T.J.'s games. At GCU, their basketball relationship gets to evolve and expand just as they return to the brotherly bonds of dining or watching television together.
"Our relationship was a huge piece of him coming back here," said T.J., entering his sixth season on the Lopes staff. "As his brother, I wanted what was best for him. If I didn't feel comfortable with it being the right fit, right place, right time, I would have said, 'Go to Butler' or "Go to Wisconsin.' But with all the things going on here right now, it's night and day from when he was coming out of high school."
After 30 major programs contacted him about transferring, Casey visited Butler and Wisconsin but figured a GCU ending was inevitable. About 30 more coaches also did, saying they would not bother with trying to recruit Casey away from T.J.
"I knew this is where I wanted to be and where I should be," Casey said. "I couldn't pass it up."
Casey and T.J. separately repeat the notion that Casey was once T.J.'s biggest fan and now T.J. is Casey's biggest fan. As a small kid, Casey improved rapidly by hanging around T.J.'s teen crowd and trying to get in their games.
Internally, Casey carries a competitive fire that his entrepreneurial father, Tim, who runs a basketball club, carries outwardly. His calm, cool way and spiritual depth come from his mother, Judy, an elementary school teacher like Holly.
"Me and my dad joke that he's 22 going on 40," T.J. said of Casey. "He finds a way to lead in the right ways, and guys follow him."
As an Oregon junior, Casey accepted an in-season switch to a bench role that moved him off the ball. Back at the point, Benson relishes how GCU head coach Dan Majerle's pro-style offense puts decisions in his hands.
"He's my kind of point guard, just like DeWayne was," Majerle said. "A guy who plays hard, is very smart, knows how to play and is going to make everybody better. He'll have more freedom to look to score. I know he'll have a great year. The most important thing is that he'll make us better."
On April 1, Casey was checking into a national semifinal game with five seconds remaining and his team trailing by one point. Each relative and friend was anticipating that a game-winning shot attempt might come his way. It never materialized, but his homecoming chronicles still might have a storybook finish.
Casey is back in Arizona – to stay this time.
"It's not as if I'm starting over," Casey said. "It's like I'm stepping in with a running start."
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
After the Tempe, Ariz., product helped Oregon to the NCAA semifinals at University of Phoenix Stadium, Benson's thoughts quickly turned 9 miles east to the Grand Canyon campus where he now resides and plays.
A Havoc-hooking image of Benson in Lopes purple fell together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Casey graduated in three years, enabling a transfer with immediate eligibility. His older brother, T.J. Benson, is a GCU assistant men's basketball coach. The Lopes are planning for their first year of NCAA Division I tournament eligibility. GCU needed a point guard and leader to fill DeWayne Russell's void.
"It's amazing how all the stars aligned," Casey said.
The stars are lining up in the Lopes' backcourt, where Casey takes over the point alongside his former youth recreation league teammate, GCU shooting guard Josh Braun. Casey won three consecutive Arizona state championships at Corona del Sol High School and tallied the second-most wins in Ducks history (90), but he is just as enthralled about GCU's offering of family in town, faith on campus and freedom at the point.
It is a feel-good story to see Casey and T.J. standing side-by-side at practices, which the team started last week in preparation for three games on an Aug. 15-23 trip to Spain. T.J. and their soccer-playing sister, Holly, also started collegiate careers elsewhere before finishing at GCU --Â but not with the fanfare Casey brings to campus.
The Lopes landed a consummate point guard, a 6-foot-4 left-hander who led the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio as Oregon's starting point guard in 2015-16. He also brings reliable spot-shooting after making 40.5 percent of his 3-point tries for last season's Pac-12 champion. Collegiate one-year transfers can prove tricky, but Casey is a treat with the team-first approach and court intelligence to quickly fit in.
When Casey returned from Oregon to Arizona in recent summers, he spent his days at GCU playing pickup with some of the players who are now teammates.
"Going to the Final Four and Elite Eight (the past two seasons) were both so fun, but to be the first team in school history to go to the NCAA Tournament would be the same kind of thing," Casey said. "It'd be awesome to know that you blazed the trail for teams to come with so much momentum gaining, the crowd and the administration backing basketball."
Casey is all in, living on a college campus for the first time with teammates Fiifi Aidoo, Oscar Frayer and Ibrahima Sankare as roommates.
Casey, nine years younger than T.J., grew up intently watching – downright analyzing – each of T.J.'s games. At GCU, their basketball relationship gets to evolve and expand just as they return to the brotherly bonds of dining or watching television together.
"Our relationship was a huge piece of him coming back here," said T.J., entering his sixth season on the Lopes staff. "As his brother, I wanted what was best for him. If I didn't feel comfortable with it being the right fit, right place, right time, I would have said, 'Go to Butler' or "Go to Wisconsin.' But with all the things going on here right now, it's night and day from when he was coming out of high school."
After 30 major programs contacted him about transferring, Casey visited Butler and Wisconsin but figured a GCU ending was inevitable. About 30 more coaches also did, saying they would not bother with trying to recruit Casey away from T.J.
"I knew this is where I wanted to be and where I should be," Casey said. "I couldn't pass it up."
Casey and T.J. separately repeat the notion that Casey was once T.J.'s biggest fan and now T.J. is Casey's biggest fan. As a small kid, Casey improved rapidly by hanging around T.J.'s teen crowd and trying to get in their games.
Internally, Casey carries a competitive fire that his entrepreneurial father, Tim, who runs a basketball club, carries outwardly. His calm, cool way and spiritual depth come from his mother, Judy, an elementary school teacher like Holly.
"Me and my dad joke that he's 22 going on 40," T.J. said of Casey. "He finds a way to lead in the right ways, and guys follow him."
As an Oregon junior, Casey accepted an in-season switch to a bench role that moved him off the ball. Back at the point, Benson relishes how GCU head coach Dan Majerle's pro-style offense puts decisions in his hands.
"He's my kind of point guard, just like DeWayne was," Majerle said. "A guy who plays hard, is very smart, knows how to play and is going to make everybody better. He'll have more freedom to look to score. I know he'll have a great year. The most important thing is that he'll make us better."
On April 1, Casey was checking into a national semifinal game with five seconds remaining and his team trailing by one point. Each relative and friend was anticipating that a game-winning shot attempt might come his way. It never materialized, but his homecoming chronicles still might have a storybook finish.
Casey is back in Arizona – to stay this time.
"It's not as if I'm starting over," Casey said. "It's like I'm stepping in with a running start."
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
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