Benfield Redefines Himself With Effort
Green Wave Senior Looks to Work His Way Onto the Court
By John Sudsbury, Tulane Media Relations
Ben Benfield has a choice. The Tulane senior can take the easy way out and relax, enjoying his remaining time as a college student and basketball player. Or he can bear down and work like never before, making his senior season the most memorable of his career.
Judging by his recent games, Benfield is not ready to call it quits on basketball.
Always known as an excellent shooter with a knack for scoring, Benfield is re-defining himself this season as a hustling “effort” player. He has become a defensive pest who can frustrate opposing scorers, using his own knowledge of shooting to take foes out of their comfort zone.
“It’s a long season and I have been playing for a long time,” Benfield said. “My mindset is that this is my last year, when I am out there on the court, it’s going to be good for me if I just try as hard as I possibly can.”
“If Ben can give us the energy he has provided in the last few games every time out, he will be a major factor in the fortunes of this team,” Tulane head coach Shawn Finney said. “I sure hope he keeps up the hard work.”
Benfield, a product of nearby
River Ridge, came to Tulane as an outright scorer. After a high school career
in which he scored over 2,800 points for
“I love
In his first three years with the Green Wave, he has shown the shooting ability which drew Tulane to him, ranking 10th all-time in three-pointers at Tulane with 60, while shooting at a 37.3-percent clip, which ranks fifth all-time at the school. He has scored in double figures 11 times, despite playing 20 minutes or more only 15 times.
“I can come right in the game and shoot well,” Benfield said. “But I am the type of player that might not score for six minutes, but then I’ll score eight points in three minutes. The more time I have on the court, I feel like it gives me a better opportunity to do well in the game.”
Hence, the redefining. By making himself a defensive asset, Benfield now offers something besides a long-range shooting option. By giving 100-percent effort every minute on the floor, his minutes will increase, leading to more shooting and scoring opportunities.
“When Ben gets into a rhythm, he is a great scorer,” Finney said. “We need to find a way to get him into his comfort zone a little quicker. If he keeps providing a spark on the defensive end of the court, he will see more playing time, and then his offense will come around. This season he seems to be learning not to let his shot affect the other parts of his game. He has been giving us the little things when he is out there. Now his offense can feed off of his defense.”
While Benfield has energized crowds with his three-point marksmanship in his time at Tulane, during the Prairie View game, the senior earned a standing ovation for a hustle play. After a Panther pass was deflected into the backcourt, a Prairie View player lazily backtracked to the loose ball. Then a diving flash of green and white slid by him, scooped up the ball and passed it off to a teammate, who was fouled, leading to the standing O. Amazingly, that play came with the Wave comfortably ahead, 63-42, with 9:11 remaining.
“That was a great play by Ben,” Finney said. “Sometimes guys only hustle when they think they really need to, like in a close game, but we need guys to play that hard every single minute of every game. That was the first time since I have been here that the fans gave one of our guys a standing ovation for a hustle play.”
He finished that game with 10 points, three assists and two steals, his best single-game stats of the season.
In the Loyola game, the pesky Wolfpack was giving the Wave a scare early in the second half, with shooter Daniel Schmidt keying the visitors’ rally. Enter Benfield.
With Loyola leading 33-32, Benfield
found Quincy Davis inside for the go-ahead hoop, then
he blocked a Schmidt three-point attempt and found
“I really think Ben was the difference in that game,” Finney said. “When he came in, he made things happen, on both ends of the court.”
“That was one of the games that I had an impact without scoring a lot of points,” Benfield said. “I feel like I have had others like that, but that very well could be the biggest one.”
As Finney works to establish a rotation among his 13 players, he has been clear that players who give full effort and sacrifice for the team will work their way onto the court. While the 22-year old Benfield is only averaging 9.7 minutes per game, the rotation is expected to shorten in the near future.
“I am going to play the players who are giving the most effort,” Finney said. “We do need to shorten our rotation. We need to give guys a chance to find an offensive rhythm, which means leaving them on the court for longer stretches. But if guys aren’t playing hard on both ends of the floor, they aren’t going to play. We are not a good enough team to just go through the motions.”
“I have just tried to come in and played hard ever since I have been at Tulane,” Benfield said. “If coach feels like it’s time to put me in the game, I am fine with that. He’s the coach, so I will just do what he tells me to do.”
While he has been drawing notice with his effort on the court in recent games, make no mistake about it, Benfield is still a shooter.
“I am definitely a shooter, that’s the reason I get to go to school for free, because I can shoot a basketball,” he said. “I can do other stuff on the court, but if I couldn’t shoot well, I wouldn’t be playing basketball in college.”
“We recruited Ben because of his shooting ability,” Finney said. “He has shown that since he has been here. When he gets a look at the hoop, we want him shooting the ball. I am much more surprised when he misses than when it goes in.”
A media arts major, Benfield will return to Tulane next year to finish his degree requirements, so in his final year of college basketball he is determined to make his last memories, lasting memories.
“I want the team to do well; that would be great,” Benfield said. “But not only for me, but for everybody who supported me over the years, all my other teammates who have worked hard with me all year.”
“I love when people like my mom and dad have a chance to come and watch me play; they get such enjoyment out of seeing me do well, so I hope it is a good finish.”