Arizona's Bennedict Mathurin is developing into a 'special player,' and more attention is coming

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Because of technical issues with Arizona’s postgame Zoom conference Thursday, not many of Bennedict Mathurin’s words could be easily understood.

But that’s OK. His body language did plenty of talking Thursday, when he crushed his debut in the Wildcats’ starting lineup during their 98-64 dismantling of Oregon State at Gill Coliseum.

By collecting 31 points, grabbing eight rebounds and producing a stunning out-of-nowhere blocked shot, Mathurin generated plenty of praise from his own coach and, maybe, from NBA scouts who tuned in somewhere to watch.

“He’s starting to really develop into a special player,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “It wasn’t that he was just red-hot. I thought he really let the game come to him. His teammates found him and I was also equally happy with his effort defensively. As he’s out there, I think he’s more sure of himself as a defender.”

Nowhere was that more evident than when Mathurin bolted inside to a swat away a fast-break layup attempt by Oregon State’s Zach Reichle in the second half Thursday and then, after James Akinjo picked up the rebound, taking a pass from Akinjo and sinking a 3-pointer.

That sequence gave Arizona a 61-26 lead with 15:57 still left to play.

“The play the game for me was when he ran as hard as he did defensively and blocked the shot,” Miller said. “Aren’t too many guys who could block that. But the fact that he gave that type of effort and got the block, those are the plays that we need to make.”

Mathurin made plays at the beginning of each half, which is precisely the reason he was inserted into the starting lineup over Dalen Terry at small forward.

Mathurin scored seven points in just 3 minutes and 30 seconds in the first half while UA went on to build a 15-0 lead, and then scored seven in the first 4:03 of the second half.

Mathurin wound up shooting 10 for 12 from the field, making 6 of 7 3-pointers and hitting 6 of 7 free throws.

“He was great,” center Jordan Brown said. “He was out there making his shots. He got hot and we kept finding him.”

The funny thing is, Mathurin wasn’t supposed to be able to hit all those shots — not yet, anyway. The scouting report on Mathurin as a recruit playing the NBA Academy’s Mexico City-based team last season was that he could jump out of the gym, had a high upside defensively and an ability to drive to the rim — but had a shot that may need work.

Well … Mathurin’s now shooting 48.8% from 3-point range, in what would rank in the NCAA’s top 20 if he qualified with enough shots. The NCAA requires 2.5 made 3s per game, while Mathurin has made 1.5 on average.

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So Mathurin appears to have that part pretty well taken care of, too.

“I been in the gym a lot lately so I’ve been working on my shot, layups and jumpshots,” Mathurin said.

“I’m going to the gym and getting more confident.”

Mathurin said he feels more comfortable every game, and that his defensive improvement has in term made him more confident.

Over his last four games, Mathurin has shot 63.8% from the field, hitting 12 of 20 3s while averaging 6.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game.

Miller has noticed.

“Benn has a lot of talent and as I’ve explained numerous times, you can almost see his development week by week,” Miller said. “He’s a little bit more confident, more sure of himself. He has a beautiful-looking shot and as he’s worked, Benn deserves a lot of credit. He’s worked on it constantly before practice, after practice. I don’t know if he’s missed a practice.”

Before long, others might notice Mathurin more often, too.

While the Canadian wing is not listed on any major mock 2021 or 2022 NBA Draft boards, The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie, the first NBA draft analyst to write of Zeke Nnaji’s first-round potential last season, mentioned Mathurin earlier this month as one of 13 players that NBA scouts “are really excited” to watch the rest of the season.

“Players out West, such as Bennedict Mathurin at Arizona and Efe Abogidi at Washington State, have caught scouts’ eyes, even though they’re more 2022 and beyond guys,” Vecenie wrote, mentioning others before adding that “there are a ton of deep sleepers to watch this year who are not quite ready for the NBA but clearly have a ton of upside worth paying attention to for when they finally come through on it.”

Rim shots

• Freshman guard Kerr Kriisa broke his nose in practice Wednesday, missing the trip to Oregon State, and Miller said he didn’t know if it might be healed by the time he becomes eligible on Feb. 6. Miller said walk-on Matt Weyand also didn’t make the trip because of an illness.
• Arizona has looked into playing one more nonconference game, but the prospect seemed doubtful as of Friday night. The Wildcats have a nonconference slot remaining after San Diego canceled on Dec. 21, and won’t otherwise play this weekend after Oregon pulled out of a game scheduled for Saturday in Eugene.

“We’re talking to the Pac-12 office, talking to our administration, making sure we don’t get in the way of anything the Pac-12 would try to do in terms of scheduling,” Miller said Thursday night. “So we’re not in total control of that.

“But as I’ve explained, we want to play our full allotment of nonconference games. It’s not easy to do.”