“Brotherhood.”

That was a word senior guard CJ Gunn used when talking about his relationship with NJ Benson and Layden Blocker. 

“We know how to get underneath each other’s skins, we know how to push those buttons we need in order to be great,” Gunn said. “We do a great job at that, but also maintaining that love and that brotherhood that we built from the jump.”

Benson, on the other hand, describes their relationship a bit differently.

“The three stooges,” Benson, a senior forward, said. “I feel like if you ask my coaches, that’s what they’ll tell you.”  

Why? Benson said they “play a lot” and that their coaches call them “kids.” Benson feels that he, Blocker and Gunn have a really strong relationship on and off the court. 

“I think it’s good that we have that type of relationship,” Benson said. “It helps us with chemistry and being able to talk to each other when we mess up and go forward from next play to next play on the floor.” 

But Benson said that Gunn is “probably the most mature” out of the three. 

“I think it’s just he gets irritated quicker, and we mess with him a lot,” Benson said. “So he don’t really have a choice.”

Head coach Chris Holtmann said that Benson, Blocker and Gunn are “good friends” and that “there’s certainly a familiarity” with them. 

“The thing I appreciate about all three of them is through the summer and through the fall, I don’t think they’ve missed a practice,” Holtmann said.  

Benson, Blocker and Gunn chose DePaul University for their 2024-25 campaigns and joined Holtmann in a rebuild of the men’s basketball program. Gunn led the team in scoring with 12.9 points per game, Blocker was third with 9.5 points per game and Benson was fourth with nine points per game. 

Benson, Blocker and Gunn all led the team in scoring in games last season. Gunn led the team in eight games, Blocker in six and Benson in five. 

In their 92-90 exhibition win against Loyola Chicago, Blocker scored 16 points, Gunn 13 and Benson 12.

“We’re all aggressive, we’re all two-way at our position,” Gunn said. “So to always be able to bring that ball pressure and to bring that tenacity on the defensive end, I believe it translates good into our offense.”

It translates well because they love to play fast, run in transition and play “above the rim.”

When asked what stands out about their play when all on the court together, Nate Kasher, a redshirt freshman guard, said “their intensity.” 

“Whether it’s practice or in-game crunch time, the first four minutes, they’re always playing very aggressive,” Kasher said. 

Before the College Basketball Crown tournament, Benson, Blocker and Gunn announced their return to DePaul. They enter the season as three of the five returners from last season. Kasher and Théo Pierre-Justin are also returners for the Blue Demons. 

Their brotherhood gives them a “head start” in being leaders of the team — Kasher attested to them being “great leaders.”

“They’re really good at making sure everyone is aware of what we need to be doing as a team to be successful,” Kasher said.

Blocker, a junior guard, said that he expects “a big jump in leadership” from themselves both “on and off the court.” 

“Scoring, all the other stuff, I feel like that’s gonna take care of itself,” Blocker said. “(The) big thing is just leadership, bringing the new guys along.”

To bring “the new guys along,” Benson said he thinks the approach is that they “take it day by day.”

“It’s been a grind, with trying to teach them, cause you come in here, if you haven’t played in the Big East, you don’t know what you are coming into,” Benson said. “That’s been our main goal, trying to show the new recruits how to be used to that.”

Kasher thinks Benson, Blocker and Gunn “can have a big year.”

“They all work really hard, and I think they can put us in really good positions to succeed,” Kasher said.

Benson, Blocker and Gunn have a year of experience playing Big East basketball and in Holtmann’s system.

“They make it a lot easier,” Brandon Maclin, a senior guard, said. “They can make the reads, give me, get all of us the open shots that we need to get. So they just make everything a lot easier, cause they really know what they doing inside the system.”

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