Bennedict Mathurin NBA DRAFT 2021-2022

Bennedict Mathurin is a native of Montreal, Quebec and grew up playing ice hockey and was a quarterback in football. Bennedict Mathurin is of Haitian descent, and comes from an athletic family. His older sister, Jennifer, played college basketball for NC State. When Benedict was 12 years old, his 15-year old brother Dominique tragically died in a bicycle accident. Bennedict and the family were of course devastated, but instead of allowing tragedy to define them, they used the incident as a means to grow and become stronger. Bennedict and his sister Jennifer turned to sports to help them cope, and he has always stated that she has been his idol growing up.

In 2018, Mathurin joined the NBA Academy of Latin America in Mexico City, becoming its first Canadian-born player. Mathurin said the two years he spent attending the academy in Mexico was probably the best thing he could’ve done for this future basketball career. He committed to playing college basketball for Arizona, choosing the Wildcats over Baylor. 

On January 2, 2021, Mathurin posted 24 points and 11 rebounds in a close win over Washington State. A few weeks later, he dropped 31 points and 8 rebounds in a win over Oregon State. This was all as a freshman. In 2022, he had a breakout season for the Arizona Wildcats. At just 19 years old, he was consensus 2nd team All American, Pac-12 POY, and of course First team all Pac-12. While Arizona didn’t do as well as they hoped in the NCAA tournament as a 1-seed, they still had a successful season lead by Mathurin. He spazzed for 30 points in their OT win over TCU to advance to the sweet 16, and he hit some absolutely clutch buckets.

The 6’6 guard is projected as a potential lottery pick in this summer’s NBA Draft, and there are plenty of squads that could use his skillset.