First-year Campbell coach John Andrzejek ‘indebted’ to Gonzaga: ‘The standard bearer in our profession’

On March 20, John Andrzejek woke up in a Raleigh, North Carolina, hotel room not far from top-seeded Florida’s opening-round NCAA Tournament site. The 32-year-old SEC assistant was deep in game-planning mode, working on a defensive strategy for the Gators’ first test against Norfolk State, when the news dropped around 9 a.m.

Campbell University was hiring Andrzejek as the school’s sixth head coach.

By sheer luck, Florida’s hotel in Raleigh happened to be close in proximity to his new job site in Buies Creek, North Carolina. So the new coach, just hours into his Campbell tenure, made a short 45-minute drive to meet with his new team, greet administrators and communicate his vision for the Camels’ program. When he returned to Raleigh? Right back to Norfolk State prep.

It was a small glimpse into what the next three weeks would look like for someone essentially trying to devote 100% of his time – including the hours he’d normally be sleeping – to multiple jobs.

“It was crazy. The first week I would say was the height of the mania,” Andrzejek said. “I’m trying to hire a staff, I’m trying to dabble with recruiting but we’re getting ready for UConn. Our second game in the NCAA Tournament is UConn and they’ve won two straight national titles, they’ve won 13 straight games in the tournament.

“Huge opponent and the phone’s blowing up and I’m struggling to find the time to sleep and I’m terrified of how the hell we’re going to guard them.”

In hindsight it all added up to a perfect storm for Andrzejek, who got the best of both worlds, savoring Florida’s run to the national championship while simultaneously fulfilling a lifelong dream to become a Division I head coach.

“The next two weeks after, it got a little easier because we really just went, all right we’ve really got to try to win this national title,” Andrzejek said. “So my time went from really a 50-50 split to being 75-25, 80-20 Florida, and that ended up paying off. We really felt like the thing that would help Campbell long term would be to see that thing out and win the national title. That would help us recruit, help us drive donations and all that stuff.”

Speaking of storms, Andrzejek, a former Washington State assistant under Kyle Smith who spent a year on Smith’s staff at San Francisco, is acutely aware of the hurricane he’s taking his Campbell team into Wednesday when the Camels (5-5) face seventh-ranked Gonzaga (10-1) at McCarthey Athletic Center (6 p.m., SWX).

“I know what the record is of teams in my situation coming into this gym. It’s not great,” Andrzejek said Tuesday. “In general, being on that sideline coaching the visitors at the Kennel is like the end of Braveheart or in Clockwork Orange where the guy’s got his eyes held open as he has to watch. It’s generally not a fun experience.”

During a practice at the Volkar Center Tuesday afternoon, Campbell players were surrounded by banners, posters and signs highlighting Gonzaga’s success at the NCAA Tournament and the various Zag players that have gone on to NBA careers.

Early in the practice session, Andrzejek tells the Camels they’ll work through one more offensive set before breaking off into a separate drill. A single Campbell player starts clapping to motivate teammates. His efforts are immediately acknowledged by the first-year coach. Andrzejek appreciates the initiative.

“Let’s start the wave of enthusiasm,” the coach shouts. “It only takes one guy.”

The Camels work through an action called “Gator,” inspired by Andrzejek’s two seasons at Florida, where Golden’s teams went 60-16, capped by the 36-win national championship season in 2024-25. Campbell, which competes in the Colonial Athletic Association, doesn’t have the same personnel, but Andrzejek still wants his team to emulate Florida’s pace, ball-screen motion offense and defensive pressure.

The Gators aren’t the only program they’re borrowing concepts from.

“We’ve got a set called ‘Zags’ too, don’t worry,” he said. “In all seriousness, there’s an article to be written. A lot of our success at Florida winning the national title is indebted to both Mark Few and his staff, Tommy Lloyd and them, because we borrowed a lot of their concepts, especially offensively. We look more similar to them than different.”

Campbell’s first-year coach has studied the Zags on film, but he’s also been in contact with members of Few’s staff, most notably Jorge Sanz, who helped Andrzejek and ex-Florida offensive coordinator Kevin Hovde, now the head coach at Columbia, implement concepts and drills over the years.

During Tuesday’s practice, the Camels eventually do get to a set called “Bulldog.” Later on they shift to “Zags high.”

“I don’t think the national title happens without them helping us sharpen our edges on some things,” Andrzejek said. “For me, this Gonzaga program has been the standard bearer in our profession for the last 15 years. I think they are the single most dominant program. … In terms of trying to dominate and trying to win the game in every facet, being awesome on endline out of bounds, being great defensively, recruiting well, getting guys to redshirt that are lottery picks, keeping the attitudes good, helping staff have great careers.

“They’ve cornered the market and they’ve been an A+ in all those areas, so it’s the program we’ve been looking up to for years and years and years.”

Andrzejek still draws from his experiences working under Smith, both in Pullman and San Francisco. The former WSU coach, now in his second year at Stanford, was widely known for an analytic-based approach – nicknamed “Nerdball” – partially predicated on “hustle stats.” Like Smith, Andrzejek monitors 42 different metrics that apply value to things not seen on a traditional box score: boxing out, diving on the floor for loose balls, making the extra pass, cutting hard, etc.

“We try to track the stuff we believe doesn’t take talent, but contributes to winning,” Andrzejek said.

The Camels know they’ll have to ace the hustle stats and then some just to keep Wednesday’s game against Gonzaga close. Campbell is an impressive 4-1 against nonpower conference opponents and the Camels hung with West Virginia in their second game of the season, losing 73-65. They’re heavy underdogs against Gonzaga but rate No. 218 at KenPom.com, significantly higher than three other midmajors – Southern Utah (316), Texas Southern (325) and North Florida (333) – that have traveled to Spokane this season.

Campell has a strong front line featuring Dovydas Butka, a Pepperdine transfer, and Chris Fields Jr., who was on the Norfolk State team that lost to Andrzejek and Florida in the NCAA Tournament. Those two combine to average 30.1 points and 18.5 rebounds, but will encounter a monster challenge Wednesday facing the Gonzaga duo of Braden Huff (17.4 ppg) and Graham Ike (17.3).

“Gonzaga’s got as good of bigs as anyone in the country,” Andrzejek said. “Huff and Ike are both absolutely unstoppable over that right shoulder. I’m blown away by Huff’s ability to hit those little floaters just inside the foul line against the drop. I think if I shot 100 of those now, I think I’d make about 10 of them and he seems to make 80% of them.”

Andrzejek is looking to keep things simple as the Camels prepare for their biggest test to this point.

“Keep it one possession at a time, play for 40 minutes, don’t get too high, don’t get too low, don’t be obsessed with the scoreboard,” he said.