By AARON BEARD AP Basketball Writer
BUIES CREEK, N.C. (AP) — John Andrzejek is finally done with juggling coaching duties.
Andrzejek spent nearly three weeks fitting in work as the newly named head coach at Campbell between his duties as an assistant at Florida. Now, less than 48 hours after Andrzejek made a beeline toward midcourt at the horn to celebrate the Gators’ run to the national championship in San Antonio, he can finally focus solely on building the foundation for his own program.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Andrzejek told reporters Wednesday at his introductory campus news conference. “I mean, when that buzzer went off, I was just sprinting on the court looking for people to hug.
“It was a long celebration, it was seven or eight hours of hugging people. We did the Riverwalk in San Antonio, had Gator fans cheering everywhere. Came back to my phone to 700 unread texts. But quickly since we got back, I’ve transitioned to being the head coach here full-time and I couldn’t be more excited for this opportunity.”
Florida beat Houston 65-63 on Monday night, then Andrzejek joined the Gators back to Gainesville for the team’s campus celebration Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, he was taking a charter flight to North Carolina to arrive at Campbell, a Coastal Athletic Association program at a private university of about 5,100 students.
The Camels have one NCAA Tournament bid in their history, a 1992 first-round loss to Duke on the way to a repeat championship.
But on Wednesday, at least, they added another tie to March Madness: their 32-year-old coach, who came armed with a strand of the clipped-down net from the title game that he held up as proof he understands what it takes to build a successful program.
The school announced Andrzejek’s hiring March 20, the day before the Gators’ NCAA Tournament opener in North Carolina’s capital city of Raleigh. But the sides planned to wait for Andrzejek to finish the ride with the Gators for him to take over the Camels.
Florida went on to reach college basketball’s biggest stage at the Final Four. That meant lots of hours switching between finishing scouting work for the Gators, then taking calls from recruits or potential staff hires with the Camels, then back to breaking down film or other tasks in Florida’s title push.
It helped that he was able to hire Landry Kosmalski, a former head coach at Division III Swarthmore, to assist from afar. Kosmalski said that included Andrzejek forwarding him names of recruits to more fully research as they put together their roster-building board.
Yet as Andrzejek noted from the Florida locker room in the Alamodome, the Camels’ sales pitch to recruits and fans got stronger with every win by the Gators.
“It’s created a lot of energy on our campus, and a lot of support and anticipation of him coming,” Campbell athletic director Hannah Bazemore said Wednesday. “And at that point, a lot of Camels turned Gators in really wanting him to be successful. I think it also helped from a recruiting standpoint for him, being able to get out there now say you’ve got a national championship coach calling you.
“It was something we couldn’t have dreamed up any better, we couldn’t have written a script any better. I think it benefitted him and it benefitted us in a tremendous way.”
It has gotten the attention of the Camels players he’s inheriting, too.
“It makes me excited,” guard Tasos Cook said. “I want to play just how those guys were playing. It looked like they were having fun playing on court, playing together.”
Andrzejek also leaned in on Campbell’s small-town vibe in Buies Creek, located about 45 minutes south of Raleigh.
He talked of growing up and baling hay in a rural town in upstate New York, describing a comfort with living here instead of “a Raleigh suburb.” And that included saying his staffers would immerse themselves in the community by being around campus, at Camels sporting events and tailgates, or at church.
He was finally clear to call it home.
“Come say hi and introduce yourselves,” Andrzejek said, promising: “We’re going to make some great memories here together too.”