Why Ben Bentil Belongs on the Cooley Era Mount Rushmore
A fun debate started on Twitter last week in regard to the question of which four Friars belong on the Mount Rushmore of Ed Cooley Era players.
Three are an absolute given: Kris Dunn, Bryce Cotton, and LaDontae Henton. Anyone questioning the legitimacy of those three have all but removed themselves from any reasonable conversation over the fourth.
Dunn was an All American guard, and a two-time Big East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. His presence completely changed the culture at Providence and national conversation about the program.
Henton is one of two Friars to finish with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in his career, while Cotton led the league in scoring, was twice named 1st Team All Big East, and led PC to its first Big East Tournament title in 20 years.
Those three players are also among the four Friars named 1st Team All Big East under Ed Cooley.
The fourth? Ben Bentil.
Of course, with any Twitter debate there was no criteria laid out, so the argument can go in one of a hundred different ways. Yet, when I compare players across years and generations I have always valued shorter term dominance over longevity.
I guess I would make a horrible Baseball Hall of Famer voter.
Bentil’s sophomore season at Providence was so dominant, yet it feels as though between seven years passing and his early entrance into the NBA Draft, just how terrific Bentil was has gone overlooked.
In 2015-16, while playing on a roster without another legitimate big man, Bentil led the Big East in scoring, field goals made, free throws attempted, and free throws made.
He was third in minutes, fifth in field goal percentage, and fourth in rebounds.
Bentil, Dunn, and Cotton are the only three players under Cooley to be named 1st Team All Big East, as well as make either an AP All American team, or be named Honorable Mention AP All American.
Bryce Hopkins has, rightfully so, been praised for all he has meant to Providence this year. He may even be the leader for Big East Player of the Year as we head into February. Some corners of the fanbase have said we haven’t seen anything like him since the turn of the century.
Hopkins numbers in league play through ten games: 18.3 points, 9.9 rebounds per game, while taking 7.8 free throws per game.
Bentil in the Big East in 2016: 22.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.8 free throw attempts per game.
Under Cooley there have been 27 games in which a Friar scored 30 points in a game. Bentil has five of those. Only Cotton (6), Henton (4), and David Duke Jr. (3) have had more than two.
More impressively, all five of Bentil’s 30-point games came in the same season — and every one of those came away from the Dunkin Donuts Center.
That includes the two highest scoring marks under Cooley: Bentil’s 42 point game at Marquette, and when he tied a PC Big East Tournament record by scoring 38 versus Butler. He also had a monster 31 point, 13 rebound game against a top five team in Villanova. The Nova game was a Friar road victory.
He had at least 20 points in 21 of PC’s 35 games that year.
In non-conference play, Bentil led PC with 21 points in a 69-65 upset of Arizona, then had 20 two days later against Michigan State. He put up 23 points and put in a game-winning tip in at URI, and went for 32 and 12 at UMass as the Friars surged to a 14-1 start and a #8 ranking in the AP top 25.
There was a five-game stretch in late February through early March in which he went for 31-28-27-23-38.
Bentil scored more points than any sophomore in Providence history. Only Jimmy Walker, Eric Murdock, MarShon Brooks, Cotton, and Ernie DiGregorio scored more points in a single season.
He finished with a team high 19 points, to go along with nine rebounds, in Providence’s first NCAA Tournament victory since 1997 — a 70-69 win over USC.
The Friars were eliminated by North Carolina, 85-66, in the next round. It was a loss that demonstrated just how critical Bentil was to those Friars. When he fouled out with 7:30 on the clock, PC trailed by five.
In Bentil’s two seasons at PC, the Friars made the NCAA Tournament each year. He started 23 games his freshman season on a team that won 22 games and earned a six seed in the NCAA Tournament.
A case could certainly be made for Nate Watson in the fourth spot. Not only did Watson finish with the most career wins and games played in Friar history, he was named 2nd Team All Big East twice and reached the Sweet 16.
Watson’s announcement to return for the 2021-22 season also stemmed the tide of a difficult 2020-21 campaign, and set the tone for an offseason that helped pave the way for last year’s tremendous success.
It’s not shortchanging Watson, Kyron Cartwright, or any other Friars of the past 12 seasons to go with Bentil, however. My Rushmore vote was based on which four players were the best when playing at their absolute peak.
Bentil’s 2015-16 campaign was simply too dominant to ignore: 1st Team All Big East, the second of three players to be named Big East Most Improved Player under Cooley, Honorable Mention All American, leading the league in scoring, and an eventual second round draft pick of the Celtics.
Full disclosure: Billy Ricci recently interviewed Ben Bentil for the Friar Podcast in an episode that will be airing soon. It will be a great listen… and it also had nothing to do with my placement of Bentil on this list.
the 4th spot is really tough. i think I would lean Nate due to his importance on such a historic Friar team + his production over 5 years