Friar Friday News & Notes with a Ben Bentil Update

Here are some Providence news and notes from the week, which includes news about a former Friar, a pair of official visitors, new 2019 offers and more.

Ben Bentil Heading to France

Former Friar Ben Bentil, who has been working out and taking classes at Providence this Summer, is taking his talents to France this season. He signed with Chalons-Reims in the French Pro A league after playing just 3 games with the San Antonio Spurs between the Las Vegas and Salt Lake City NBA Summer Leagues. Bentil played 3 games last season in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks during a 10-day contract after he returned from a stint in China that included 11 games with Xinjiang Guanghui in which Bentil averaged 13.7 points/game and 4.8 rebounds/game. Bentil scored 19 points in his preseason debut with Chalons-Reims on Thursday against Brussels.

OFFICIAL: @benbentil moves to France, as he signs 1-year deal with @LNBofficiel club @CCRBASKET #octagon pic.twitter.com/vuBRW2KnaL

— Octagon Basketball Europe (@OctagonBballEU) August 28, 2017

Two Officials Visitors in Providence This Week

2018 Noah Locke flew into Providence on Wednesday night to begin his official visit to Providence. This is Locke’s second of five planned official visits. Locke visited Ohio State last week and plans to visit Xavier (9/9), Michigan (9/16) and Florida (9/30).

2018 Noah Locke flies into Providence tonight to start his official visits. Friars also host 2018 Jimmy Nichols this weekend #pcbb #gofriars

— Mike Hopkins (@pcbb1917) August 30, 2017

The Friars are also hosting 2018 Jimmy Nichols for the first of his three planned official visits (South Carolina 9/8 and Miami 9/29). Nichols flew into Providence on Thursday night.

https://twitter.com/jimmynichols17/status/902265633320075264

2018 David Duke Sets Florida Official Visit

David Duke heads back to Cushing Academy for his final year of high school on Saturday. Earlier this week it was announced that the Providence native has set one of his official visits: Florida. Duke will visit Florida on September 22nd, a weekend one of my Slack patrons pointed out right away, includes a Saturday where the football team is on the road.

https://twitter.com/zachghughes/status/901874201765740544

The Friars are still believed to be in excellent shape with Duke, but I’m sure Providence fans are rooting for Florida and Villanova, the two schools believed to be the biggest competition, to land other guards in 2018.

New 2019 Offers

Providence has continued to look ahead in recruiting even while hosting the above rising seniors for official visits. On Tuesday an offer was reported to 2019 Loomis Chaffee wing Jaiden Delaire who runs with Kris Dunn’s former grassroots team Connecticut Basketball Club (CBC).

@CTBballClub's 2019 stud Jaiden Delaire (@jdelaire11) continues to turn heads! His latest offer comes from Providence.#respeCT

— CTBballClub (@CTBballClub) August 29, 2017

Delaire measures at 6’8 and 210 pounds and also has offers from Columbia, Connecticut, Hofstra, Iona, Kansas State, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Rutgers, South Florida, Stanford, Towson, Tulane, Southern California and Yale. He was originally in the class of 2018 but repeated his sophomore year at Loomis Chaffee last year after transferring from Granby Memorial High School. Delaire was named a Second Team NEPSAC Class A performer last season. He ran with the 16U CBC team on the Under Armour Association circuit and averaged 11.4 points/game and 4.1 rebounds/game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYClX65LETk

On Thursday the Friars offered 2019 power forward Wildens Leveque while the Mass Rivals big man was on campus for an unofficial visit, along with Providence commit AJ Reeves. Leveque recently announced that he will be transferring from Foxborough Regional Charter School to Gould Academy in Maine and he will reclassify from 2018 to 2019. Leveque missed most of the Spring with a wrist injury but showed flashes this Summer with Mass Rivals. His only other offer to date came from Rutgers in late July. He recently completed an unofficial visit to Rutgers as well. NewEnglandRecruitingReport.com recently ranked Leveque as the #1 player in Maine for the upcoming season.

6'9 2019 PF Wildens Leveque received an offer from Providence today on an unofficial visit. Rutgers offered in July. @wildensleveque

— 𝒜𝓃𝒹𝓇ℯ𝓌 𝒮𝓁𝒶𝓉ℯ𝓇 (@Andrew__Slater) August 31, 2017

Providence Targets New Rivals Rankings

Rivals.com updated their 2018 and 2019 recruit rankings this week and a number of Providence recruiting targets made the 2018 Top 150 and expanded 2019 Top 150. Here is where some names connected to Providence ended up being ranked by Rivals:

2018

• #37 – David Duke
• #41 – Khavon Moore
• #45 – AJ Reeves
• #63 – Noah Locke

2019

• #9 – Balsa Koprivica
• #12 – Chol Marial
• #13 – Armando Bacot
• #19 – Jalen Lecque
• #24 – Joey Baker
• #36 – Kofi Cockburn
• #39 – Isaiah Stewart
• #46 – Josh Nickelberry
• #52 – Bryce Wills
• #55 – Aundre Hyatt
• #58 – Jaiden Delaire
• #67 – Khalif Battle
• #89 – Akok Akok
• #90 – Karim Coulibaly
• #99 – Kira Lewis
• #112 – Kyle Sturdivant
• #130 – Brycen Goodine
• #133 – Khyree Temple

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Mike Hopkins

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