GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The team filed out of the locker room and into the gym Tuesday for the first practice of the week. The players had a collective look of curiosity at the sight of a handful of strange faces and video cameras on the floor, as Florida coach Todd Golden told his players to huddle up at midcourt. 
 
Yeah, the Final Four brings ’em out of the woodwork, but this was different. 
 

Brandon Landry introduced himself to the team with a short story. He was a walk-on basketball player at LSU – “The last guy coming in the game, whether up by 30 or down by 30,” he said – who upon graduating in 2003 dove into the hospitality business and opened a sports bar in Baton Rouge called Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux. More than two decades later, he has 80 franchises in 16 states, including three in Florida. 
 
“We like to celebrate the heart of a walk-on,” Landry told the Gators. “We like to find stories, and you guys have been inspirational.” 
 
All eyes in the gyms instantly locked in on fifth-year guard Bennett Andersen, who did three seasons as a team manager before being promoted to walk-on by Golden in 2023. 
 
Three times in the last two weeks, Golden summoned Andersen from the end of the UF bench to finish off victories during this historic Gators postseason run. Twice Andersen lit up the sidelines. In the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals, Bennett checked in with one minute left and took Alabama’s Labaron Philon off the dribble for a layup that sent his teammates into delirium. On Thursday, in the “Sweet 16” defeat of Maryland, Bennett entered with 1:06 to go, grabbed an offensive rebound and converted a putback, again sending the team in an exhuberant celebration.
 

Getting ISO’d by Bennett Andersen is crazy 😂 pic.twitter.com/HeAAwB7M8D

— Florida Gators 🐊🔥 (@gatorsszn) March 15, 2025

Getting ISO’d by Bennett Andersen is crazy 😂 pic.twitter.com/HeAAwB7M8D

— Florida Gators 🐊🔥 (@gatorsszn) March 15, 2025

 
Landry said he’d been told Andersen, the fifth-year graduate student with a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering, liked cheeseburgers, and that he now could roll into any Walk-On’s and order one on the house. 
 
“And one other thing,” Landry said. “You’re gettin’ a scholarship.”
 
Moments later, “Bennie Buckets” (yeah, Andersen has a new nickname) was posing with a giant mock check for $10,000, with his teammates — again! — cheering him on.
 

Andersen, already with a Industrial & Systems Engineering degree and working toward a master’s in management in the College of Business, was floored. What a few weeks it’s been for the Tampa native, whose locker room interview with a local WRUF reporter from the Elite Eight in San Francisco last weekend took on a life of its own and earned both Anderson and Talia Baia a T-shirt endorsement deal. 
 

The Walk-On’s deal was a little more complicated, but came together in whirlwind fashion, thanks to Ben Chase, UF’s director of NIL strategy, UAA’s office of compliance and the folks at Walk-On’s. 
 
“It means a lot,” said Andersen, whose proud parents got a morning phone call from Chase, who suggested they get to Gainesville by 2 p.m. for a cool mini-ceremony. “The last few days have been pretty overwhelming. I’m not used to this kind of attention, so I’m a little ready for it to all end, to be honest, but I’m so grateful to everyone. It’s all amazing.” 
 
Oh, and one more thing. 
 
“We’re in the Final Four,” he said. “It’s all a dream come true.”

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu