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Andy Enfield is about to enter his tenth season as head coach of USC. He hasn’t shed tears knowing that his Trojan will avoid trading with Benedict Maturin next season when playing in Arizona. “He may be the best guard in our league since I came here,” says Enfield. “He’s an elite athlete, a scorer, and very competitive. All the possessions he’s come to you. And he learned how to score in big moments.”
Indeed, it’s not only Maturin’s stunning talent, but also his inspirational idea that drove him to the sixth pick in 2022. NBA Draft, he was chosen by Indiana Pacers.. All of that was quickly revealed on March 20th, when Arizona faced a three-point deficit against the TCU in just over a minute to play in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Maturin converted a dunk shoot from a backdoor cut and then converted a deep three-pointer with 13 seconds remaining to force his overtime. He played the game’s biggest in the second half of the additional session, grabbed an aggressive rebound and transformed one of the four purple jerseys to lead the Wildcats to an 85-80 victory. Maturin started two out of nine shots from the field, but ended up with 30 points (11 out of 13 free throws), eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. “Ben isn’t afraid of the moment,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd later said. “He is a special player with the ability to move up to another level as needed. He has that clutch gene.”
So, yeah, it’s easy to understand why Enfield and the rest of the Pac-12 are happy to see Maturin take his talents somewhere else. In many respects, he is well suited for the game to succeed in the more open and uptempo NBA. Maturin had strength, speed and power for a long time, but while he was in Tucson he also developed ball skills, decision making and defense. Maturin is one of the rare perspectives where work ethic goes beyond his potential. If his progress continues to rise, he could become an NBA All-Star.
“I like people who get better,” says a Western Conference scout. “I love his motor and his physical dimensions.” Adds the Eastern Conference General Manager. He’s not yet an elite playmaker / passerby / ball handler, but he does everything you like in his position, including defense. He will be an effective two-way player in this league for a long time. “
Maturin developed his competitiveness in a difficult way.he I grew up in a neighborhood that wasn’t well serviced In the autonomous region of Montreal Nord, Quebec. Ben had never met her father, and her mother struggled to raise three children as a single mother in an area plagued by violence and drugs. Ben takes Ben with her sister Jen, who was to play basketball at North Carolina State University, to play pick-up basketball in a local park at an early age, best to keep her brother straight. I was strongly influenced by my brother Dominique who did his best. And narrow.
However, Dominique was killed in a car at the age of twelve. Maturin moved with Jennifer’s grassroots coach, but he was crazy and rebellious and took time to learn to trust others. A crucial moment came when Maturin was 15 and was discovered by a coach at the recently opened NBA Academy in Mexico City. Structure, coaching, competition, and access to top-notch facilities were the perfect igniters of Maturin’s inner fire. He chose Arizona over Baylor, but it took a while for Maturin to feel part of the team, even though it was enough to record a lot of time as a freshman. “He was very alert and very quiet,” said former Arizona coach Sean Miller. Athletic In January. “He was so young that we knew he came from some difficult situation.”
Matuin moved to the starting lineup for the freshman season in mid-January, scoring 31 points in his Oregon victory that night and never looking back. He averaged 10.8 points and 4.8 rebounds, and many players in the Maturin position should have tested the waters of the NBA Draft, but never put his name in the pool. “I didn’t want a weakness,” he said. Athletic..
Not much was seen last winter. Maturin was easy to be selected as this year’s Pac-12 player after averaging 17.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists. Arizona wasn’t ranked in the pre-season, which was the main reason for being number one in the NCAA tournament. .. This time around, there was no doubt that turning professional was the best move.
Now, Maturin needs to remember everything that led him to this point in the first place. “He’s currently a bit stuck between the spot-up shooter and the straight driver, and he needs to make further progress as a playmaker,” says Lloyd. “But he’s one of the hardest-working workers I’ve ever experienced, and he has a lot of room for improvement. He’s very leadership and definitely has a plan. When he faced the clutch moment in the NBA, I’m sure he’s ready to deliver. “
(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
