Cade Bennerman’s senior year is going well now, but it certainly didn’t start out like he wanted it to.
The 6-foot-11 Northwestern Class of 2025 signee from Nashville (Tenn.) Father Ryan was stricken with pneumonia for the first two weeks of November. He eventually played through it but said that the illness affected him all the way through December. He wasn’t himself until January.
“It took a long time to get over the symptoms,” he said via text message.
Coaches like to say that overcoming adversity is an important part of being an athlete. Pneumonia certainly gave Bennerman the opportunity to do just that.
Now recovered from his illness, Bennerman has hit his stride. He averages 15.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game on the season, including the games in November and December when he was not at his best. That's double the points and two more rebounds per game than he averaged last season.
He’s played well enough to get nominated for the Tennessee Division II-AA Mr. Basketball award. Some scouting services rank him as the No. 1 prospect in the state.
“I started off the year coming off of pneumonia so I wasn’t fully healthy until January, but I’ve played really well since then,” he said.
Father Ryan is thriving too. The Irish are 16-7 and 5-4 in their district. They have won four of their last five with three games remaining in the regular season and are poised for a playoff run.
Bennerman said that he’s enjoying the camaraderie with his teammates in his last year of high school basketball before he reports to Northwestern this summer. This year, an added bonus is that the Father Ryan roster includes his younger brother, Tyler, a freshman point guard.
“It’s been fun playing with my teammates one last time especially since we’ve been playing together for a long time,” said Bennerman. “My little brother is also on the team this year and it’s been fun getting to play with him some.”
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Bennerman said that the highlight of the season so far was winning “our Christmas tournament”, the 2024 Willie Brown ’65 Memorial Basketball Tournament. Even while still battling his illness, he helped lead the Irish to three wins. They knocked off Martin Luther King, 78-53, and then Green Hill, 47-33.
In the championship game against Brentwood, however, the Irish got into some trouble. The trailed 32-22 midway through the third quarter before going on an epic 18-2 run, helped by what the Nashville Catholic called “a rattling dunk” by Bennerman. The Irish pulled away from there to win easily, 51-44.
Bennerman looks back at where he was as a player last year and sees marked improvement.
“I feel like my game improved on my confidence, strength, and I’m in better shape,” he said. “Also my athleticism.”
That athleticism, along with a 7-foot, 5-inch wingspan, is what attracted college programs to him. He's done a 60-inch box jump and can get his head to the rim as shown below in a post that created an uproar among the Northwestern X community.
Bennerman is far from a finished product. He has to gain weight and strength and has significant development to do as a player. But the raw tools are there.
The battle for Bennerman came down to two Big Ten schools: Northwestern and Michigan. He visited both campuses in consecutive weeks back in September before committing to the Wildcats on Nov. 6. He signed a week later, on Nov. 13.
Bennerman hasn’t been back to Evanston for any games this season, but he has been following the team, as you might imagine. WildcatReport caught up with him the day after the news broke that Wildcat star Brooks Barnhizer would miss the remainder of the season.
“It’s unfortunate with what happened with Brooks and he would definitely help the team be better,” he said with colossal understatement.
With his size and skill set, you might think that Bennerman would be a center. But he’s not. He’s not a stretch 4, either. He says that he’s a classic power forward who is at his best playing in a lineup with a center. He likes to set up camp near the basket, not on the perimeter.
So while the step up from Tennessee Division II to the Big Ten is a doozy, especially for a big man, Bennerman thinks that his skill set will make it a little less steep.
“I think my toughest transition will be my easiest transition,” he said. “And that will be, I will be able to spread my wings and display my skills.
“I’m a natural forward that thrives playing along another big. If that can happen, I feel I will be a matchup problem for the other team.”
That’s all Northwestern can ask for.
