It’s Day 7,302 of the search for a big man in Providence — at least it feels like its been going on that long. The first game of the basketball season is 10 days away for the Friars but the recruiting season is what is still dominating the discussion among Friar fans. Sedee Keita committed to South Carolina on Tuesday and a day later Nik Popovic pledged to Boston College after returning from a visit to Chestnut Hill over the weekend. There continue to be new names popping up in this recruiting effort and the new guy this week is Iran Bennett.

Bennett is a native of Spencer, NC — a small town of around 3,200 people that is 100 miles west of Durham — and is in his first season at Hargrave Military Academy. Since enrolling at Hargrave, Bennett has been consistently dropping weight and getting in better shape. In an article from early September, Jamie Shaw of PhenomHoopReport.com says that Bennett was playing at around 325 pounds this summer and had already dropped 20 pounds after a month on Hargrave’s campus to that point. “In fact, in practice today, Bennett made the time on every one of his wind sprints,” Shaw wrote.

Bennett ran with a local AAU program — USA United — last season after it was initially thought he would run with Team Wall on the adidas Gauntlet series. The summer before that he was with Team Loaded and put up solid numbers. Bennett’s offer list includes Charlotte, Cincinnati, Georgetown, Ohio State, Rutgers and Wake Forest. The Wake Forest offer came from the new staff but the prior staff that included Jeff Battle was also involved with Bennett. Ed Cooley, Jeff Battle and Andre LaFleur all traveled down to Hargrave last week to watch Bennett’s game and an offer was extended that night, according to Bennett.

To update Friar fans on another frontcourt target, Darius Hicks told pcbb1917.com that Providence is recruiting him hardest right now and he has been hearing from both Jeff Battle and Ed Cooley recently. Hicks doesn’t have any visit dates set as of now and also doesn’t have a firm timetable in mind. He was formerly committed to Mississippi State prior to Rick Ray’s firing last spring.

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