Archdeacon: Benzinger feeling the love as Raiders sweep tourney

He was talking about the reaction he got over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

“They either loved me or they hated me,” Wright State’s Grant Benzinger said.

The 6-foot-3 guard was not referring to the Men Against Breast Cancer Classic that the Raiders hosted at the Nutter Center, a three games in three days event that he opened with an 0-for-6 effort from three-point range against Cal State University-Bakersfield on Friday and ended with a 5-for-6 shooting from long range in a 75-67 victory over North Florida on Sunday.

No, his “love me-hate me” embrace came Thanksgiving Day when he and the entire Wright State team volunteered at the Feast of Giving communal dinner at the Dayton Convention Center.

The free event – which draws nearly 7,000 people – is for anyone looking for a holiday meal and, if they want, to share some good vibes with a vast spectrum of folks from across the Miami Valley.

The Wright State players and coaches were involved in both pursuits.

As soon as he got there, head coach Scott Nagy jumped into the serving line and ladled out food with Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley working right next to him.

Several of the Raiders players – hair nets on their heads, but unconstrained when it came to conviviality – manned another serving line across the room. Other players, like 6-foot-9, 295-pound Loudon Love, put people’s meals on a tray and carried them to the tables.

“I was the cranberry sauce guy,” Benzinger grinned. “Some people hated me because I was giving them cranberries and other people loved it because to them you can’t have Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce. So with me, it was either love or hate.”

While much of it was love, he was, by no means, the star of the Raiders’ show that day.

That distinction belonged to fellow guard Justin Mitchell.

When the band that was entertaining that day broke into Marcia Griffiths’ “Electric Boogie,” the Convention Center dance floor soon filled with some 150 people – young and old, black, white, a Chinese lady, a Mexican family, homeless people, some workers, a security guard – all doing the Electric Slide line dance.

And right in the middle of them, wearing his hair net and a light-up-the-room smile – was the muscled Mitchell. His moves caught the attention of many, all of whom seemed to love what they were seeing.

That’s just about the same reaction Benzinger got Sunday against North Florida, when his long-range accuracy included a perfect 4-for 4 effort in the second half. He finished with 21 points as Wright State – winners of all three of its games in the tournament – upped its record to 6-1.

Benzinger was voted the MVP of the tournament.

After those misfires the first game – when he was 0-for-6 from three-point range, 0-for-7 overall and finished with two points thanks to free throws – he had 23 points Saturday against North Dakota and then his team-high 21 against the Ospreys.

The latter two nights – especially Sunday – were aided in part because of the defensive attention the opposition directed toward Raiders guard Mark Alstork, who opened the tournament as the nation’s leading scorer.

When he had the ball, drove and drew a double team, he often flipped it back out to Benzinger, who can be deadly when he gets in a rhythm.

Benzinger said he’s always been known as “a shooter” and, in fact, that became one of his first goals when he was a kid hanging around the practices of the Loveland High girls team that his dad – former Major League baseball player and Dayton Dragons manager Todd Benzinger – once coached.

“My dad coached girls from the time I was five until I was about in seventh grade,” said Benzinger, who, along with his sisters, served as ball boys and ball girls for the teams until the girls finally were old enough to play themselves.

“I was always in the gym, rebounding for the girls or shooting at a side basket on my own,” he said. “On game days, my dad had me tape the games for him. I think he gave me $5, but I always spent it at the concession stand right away.

“The one thing I really remember is dad showing his team a video of J.J, Redick, when he was at Duke. It was a highlight video and my dad used it to break down form: Knees bent, back straight, elbows up. It was the perfect shooting form.

“And J.J. Redick would get 30 a night and it was so easy and so pretty and I was like: ‘I want to do that!’”

Once he started to play for Moeller High, Benzinger said he took his basketball more seriously because “that’s what Moeller demands. It’s a commitment to excellence.”

He ended up Moeller’s all-time leader in three pointers made.

Playing for the Crusaders, he was also known for his toughness.

“It’s because I played football,” he said. He was a safety and his junior year the team won the state title.

Sunday during his postgame session, Nagy brought up Benzinger’s toughness:

“He doesn’t have much regard for his body. He’s the first kid on the floor for a loose ball. He’s not afraid of contact.”

Benzinger is more proud of the toughness tag than the ‘’shooter” designation.

“Oh definitely, for sure,” he smiled. “Anybody can shoot the ball, but not everybody can take a hit and keep getting up and going.”

Swish the nets guys aren’t usually dive on the floor kamikaze types.

“I know, they’re usually soft,” he laughed. “But we’re lucky. Our other three-point shooter, Mile La Tulip, he also dives at anything. He’ll do the dirty work no one wants to do. It’s hard to find two guys like that on one team.”

In part, because such recklessness can come with painful training room reward.

“Almost every game he’s over here,” Nagy said nodding toward the training room. “They’re draining his elbow because of a bursa sac that’s busted.”

Benzinger said he’s had had the elbow drained about five times: “The sac pops open and fills with blood and they have to drain it with a needle.”

He said the last time was last Monday, four days before the tournament.

“I felt pretty good these last games,” he said.

Especially Sunday – and that was for another reason, as well.

“Nana, that’s my (great) grandmother, she actually got to watch this one today on TV ,” he said. “Starting at 4:30, it was early enough for her to see. Usually she goes to bed early and misses it.

“So today I was playing for her and I hope she liked it.”

On a love me-hate me weekend for Benzinger, Sunday was all about love.

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