It wasn't that there was anything wrong with how Bennedict Mathurin was playing early in the season for Arizona, but he certainly wasn't at the level he is at now coming off another high-scoring performance for the Wildcats in a 94-65 victory over previously unbeaten Wyoming on Wednesday night.
In the win the sophomore scored a team-high 24 points to go with 10 rebounds and five assists. Mathurin is the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week, and in his last two games he is averaging 26.5 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
He scored just eight points in Arizona's season opener missing 11 shots in all. It was not the type of performance expected of the preseason All-Pac-12 selection.
Eventually, Mathurin has been able to work through the early kinks of learning a new system, and he has become the team's star and go-to player in recent weeks.
“We talked about it. He’s a developing player," UA head coach Tommy Lloyd said about his standout wing. "Sometimes people in the media or this NBA mock draft world try to anoint these kids and move them along too fast. Benn needs to develop at his own pace, and he looks pretty good to me right now. So I just think he needs to stay locked and loaded on what he’s doing. He’s getting great results and actually developing into a real, real basketball player, and that’s so much fun to watch.”
It has been no secret that Mathurin needed to adjust from a more rigid system under previous head coach Sean Miller to the free-flowing style Lloyd has implemented in his first season. For Mathurin, it has meant having a better understanding of where he needs to be on the floor to make plays while reading the defense to figure out where his best opportunities to impact the game will come.
He has found a comfort zone as the season has moved along, and his grasp of what is needed to have success has grown throughout that process.
“I’d say play away from the ball,” Mathurin said about where the adjustment has come this year. “It was one of my weaknesses coming off the summer, and then I worked on it a lot. So I just say play off the ball and then get plays based off my teammates.”
The clear area of progress for Mathurin in recent games has been his ability to perform well on the offensive glass. He has collected 15 of his 20 offensive rebounds this season over the last five games.
He hit a new season high by hauling in five offensive rebounds in Wednesday night's win over the Cowboys. That area is something Lloyd has been focusing on when coaching Mathurin, and the Arizona head coach has been pleased with his progress in that area.
Lloyd has also had Mathurin focus on becoming a more efficient passer allowing him to be on the receiving end of passes in transition rather than generating fouls by trying to take the ball coast to coast himself.
Mathurin showed progress in that area in Wednesday's game.
“He’s awesome, he's playing really good,” Lloyd said about the progress Mathurin has made a month into the season. “How he slowed down and passed the ball today. Those were plays, like in the Sacramento State game, he had three times and forced the ball in transition and he turned it over in the first half. And I told Benn, ‘Benn, it’s not against the rules for you to push the ball, but you’re so much better when you’re out in front and you’re on the receiving end of the play.’ I think he had one charge on the left side in the first half today. It's just learning things.
"That was his only turnover, and then he had some incredibly mature plays and then just the offensive rebounding. It’s a difference-maker. You go from an average player, who your teammates have to serve, to now he’s serving the team and he’s making plays on broken plays. And that’s really, really hard to play against.”
Mathurin entered the season already part of NBA draft boards, and his play as of late isn't going to do anything to prevent more talk of his future at the next level. However, Mathurin remains focused on the job at hand currently with UA heading into a challenging stretch starting with a matchup against Illinois this weekend on the road.
“Obviously I knew I was coming to back Arizona, I knew I would have a bigger role,” Mathurin said. “I just have a mindset of winning and being undefeated. There’s nothing else more fun than playing with my teammates and win games. We’ve been playing for more than a month and a half and just being undefeated is one of the best feelings. So I’m just focusing on the team right now.”
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