Bensley Joseph Puts Marquette In His Top Five

I told you on Tuesday that it’s the time of the year when soon-to-be high school seniors that have college basketball futures start making choices for their future. That was in relation to Wisconsin native James Graham, but later that day, fellow Class of 2021 prospect Bensley Joseph announced his top five destinations. Obviously, since we’re talking about it here, Marquette is on the list. The Golden Eagles are joined in that top five by 20% of the rest of the Big East in Georgetown and Providence as well as Boston College and Miami.

Joseph is currently listed as a 6’1”, 165 pound point guard by 247 Sports. Their ever popular Composite system ranks him as the #92 prospect in the Class of 2021. That makes Joseph the #14 point guard in the class and the top prospect in the state of Massachusetts. This is one of those cases where the Composite ranking is being propped up by forces outside of the 247 Sports office, as their internal system has Joseph as the #136 prospect in the country. This could be merely an issue of other scouts have seen him more than 247 Sports scouts have, as the coronavirus pandemic has done a number on the grassroots hoops circuits.

We should probably talk about his state prospect ranking a little bit. Joseph attended Cushing Academy this past school year, which is in Arlington, MA. As the #92 prospect in the country, he would be the best prospect coming out of Massachusetts. Joseph is enrolled to attend Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut this fall however, so he’s kind of a Connecticut prospect now. #92 still makes him the top prospect in CT, though, beating out Nate Santos at #126. That’s a bit of luck of the draw though, as fellow Marquette prospect Micawber Etienne, currently #50 in the country is transferring from Suffield Academy in CT to Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. It’s all a confusing bit of business, I know, and that’s why we needed to hammer out 100 words talking about it.

Joseph’s offer from head coach Steve Wojciechowski came amid a flurry of offers that Marquette handed out in early May. Georgetown and Miami had both gotten offers in at that point, while Providence got on the board shortly after Marquette. Boston College is the latest school to the party, issuing an offer to Joseph in mid-June. If we presume that Joseph hails from the Boston area since he was in prep school there last year, then it makes a lot of sense that he was happy to include the Eagles on his list even though it’s only been about a month since they took the plunge with an official offer. Every recruiting process and relationship is different, so we’ll have to wait and see what Joseph values most for his future landing spot.

It would appear that Joseph averaged 15.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists, and two steals per game for Cushing. That seems pretty good, especially at just 6’1”. He tallied 23 points, seven assists, and six steals in a high profile game at the Hoophall Classic back in January. Joseph has also been on the radar for the USA junior national team, getting a chance to participate in minicamps last July and last October. You really can’t go wrong with a guy who’s in the conversation for his age group’s version of the national team.

Can I interest you in 2:30 of highlights from summer 2019?

And onwards to the scholarship chart we go.....

Now, you might be saying, “hey, Marquette already has Kameron Jones committed for the Class of 2021, do they need a point guard?” First, Jones is regarded in the scouting circles as a shooting guard, so that doesn’t matter to the discussion. Second, you can never have too many talented ballhandlers. Marquette is projected to have two more years of both D.J. Carton and Symir Torrence in the point guard department when Joseph would theoretically be arriving on campus, so it’s not a need for the roster in that regard. However, I really can’t say “you can’t have enough talented ballhandlers on a roster” enough times, so I think there’s clearly a role on the squad for Joseph. Averaging 15/7/7 as a 6’1” point guard is pretty impressive, and if that kind of multidimensional play can translate to Division 1 hoops, then it’s probably a good problem for Wojciechowski and his staff to try and figure out how Joseph can co-exist in the backcourt with Carton and Torrence, as well as Jones, Greg Elliott, Jose Perez, and Dexter Akanno.