Arizona Basketball: Bennedict Mathurin on Wooden Award midseason watch list

With 2021-22 Arizona Basketball approaching the halfway point, star wing Bennedict Mathurin is on the Wooden Award midseason watch list.

Arizona Basketball is off to a terrific start in the 2021-22 season and sophomore wing Bennedict Mathurin has been a big part of the teams’ overall success.

Fresh off a fantastic freshman campaign in which the Canadian native turned some heads, he is now putting together an even better sophomore campaign that is getting him plenty of extra media attention, and rightfully so.

In 13 games that he has played, Mathurin is averaging 18.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game while shooting 50.6 percent from the field including 38.6 percent from three.

Naturally, due to his stellar play, Benn has been named to the Wooden Award Midseason watch list, which the award goes to the National Player of the Year annually.

As Arizona Basketball wing Bennedict Mathurin continues to make a name for himself, Mathurin  joins rare territory for the Wildcats.

As we all saw before the season, Mathurin was selected to the conferences’ preseason Pac-12 First-Team, and he already has been named the Pac-12 Player of the Week in consecutive weeks. He is just the third player at Arizona to do so.

With the Wildcats’ schedule heating up, Arizona is going to have to continue to rely on the play of Mathurin if they are going to go deep in the Tournament this year, which could be a great opportunity for Benn.

As it stands, Mathurin is projected to be the No. 7 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft according to Bleacher Report’s NBA Draft Analyst, Jonathan Wasserman.

Furthermore, if Mathurin were to win the Wooden Award, he would be only the second Wildcat in Arizona history to win the award. Sean Elliot is the only Wildcat to win the award, being named College Basketball’s National Player of the Year in 1989.