The Providence Friars have had an excellent season so far, as they are 18-5 overall, 6-4 in the Big East and ranked 11th in the nation. The Friars look like a surefire NCAA tournament team, and they also look like they can make some serious noise in March. One of the Friars' major weaknesses was revealed in their loss to DePaul on Tuesday night, though, and that is their depth. Forward Ben Bentil hurt his ankle in that game and may be in danger of missing Saturday's game against Villanova.
Bentil only played 14 minutes in the loss to DePaul before he injured his ankle. He underwent x-rays after the game, according to Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal, but those reportedly came back clean so it seems as though Providence may have dodged a major bullet.
Providence plays one of its bigger games of the year on Saturday afternoon when it hosts Villanova. Villanova is in first place in the Big East and has been dominating the conference for years now, but Providence beat the Wildcats on their home floor last season. If the Friars want to pull off the sweep, they will need Bentil in the lineup, but he is listed as day-to-day, according to Jeff Goodman of ESPN, and his status for Saturday is in doubt.
Bentil is a 6-foot-9 sophomore forward who has shown tremendous improvement from year one to year two. So far this season Bentil has appeared in every one of Providence's games, and he leads them in points (19.7 per game) and rebounds (7.8 per game.) When Bentil and star player Kris Dunn are both on the floor, this team is dangerous, but when one is off they are not nearly as good.
This is shown by the fact that Bentil couldn't play in the second half of the Friars' game on Tuesday and they ended up losing to a DePaul team that is 8-14 this season. It is also shown by the fact that Providence struggled in the two games Dunn missed earlier this year against teams of much less quality than it.
The good news is that Bentil's injury doesn't appear to be all that serious and it should not affect him long-term as the Big East and NCAA tournaments approach. The bad news is that the Friars are three games behind Villanova in the Big East and need to win this game to have any real chance at winning the regular season championship. Bentil still may play in this game, but it is unlikely he would be able to play at full strength even if he does give it a go.
