Sept. 23, 2005

The Nova Notebook, by Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan, appears each week beginning in the fall and continues through the basketball regular season. This week we introduce freshman swingman Bilal Benn.

As he enters an office at Jake Nevin Field House, Bilal Benn takes note of a basketball photo hanging on a wall.

"That's Howard Brown, right?" Benn asks, referring to the former Wildcat who graduated in 1999 and now plays professionally in Europe. "I thought at first it was Gary Buchanan because of the No. 22 he's wearing. Gary Buchanan was one of my favorite players when I was younger. Man, he could shoot."

As a student of basketball and a Philadelphia native, Benn arrives in college with a unique perspective on his new home. Not long ago, he was eager to leave his native city behind. Now, he embraces the opportunity to be a part of it.

"A couple of years ago my whole thing was to get away from home" says Benn, who originally committed to attend Siena College. "I was going to get out of Philly and start over. But now, after being away, it's great to be at Villanova, close to home."

That there are many avenues to basketball success is apparent in Benn's story. This is not the tale of a decorated prep hoops standout. In fact, Benn spent much of his high school and prep career coming off the bench. Often he was overshadowed by more prominent Philadelphia players, including his current teammate and close friend, Kyle Lowry.

Yet Benn brings much to the floor that doesn't necessarily appear in a boxscore. He is, by all accounts, a tenacious competitor who tirelessly works to enhance his game. Part of his motivation in coming to Villanova was to challenge himself against experienced elite players such as Wildcat seniors Randy Foye, Curtis Sumpter and Allan Ray along with Mike Nardi and Lowry.

"The way I look at it," says Benn, "is that these are some of the best guards in the country. Why wouldn't I want to challenge myself against them? Each one of them has different strengths and I'm trying to learn as much as I can from them."

That the 6-5 Benn relishes the kind of physical play he will find under the lights in the Big East makes sense. Prior to high school, he spent much of his time playing football, as a quarterback. At one point, he believed that might be his sport of choice. But as he approached high school he sensed that his progress was not coming at a rapid enough rate to help him land a college scholarship.

It was then he shifted gears and focused on basketball.

One of those he encountered was Lowry.

"I met Kyle going into ninth grade," Benn says. "He was playing for Sonny Hill with all of the older kids. I just thought he was real good. And then he played on my (AAU) team so I got to know him."

The duo was also teammates at Cardinal Dougherty High School. They became friends as the squad emerged as one of the more accomplished in Philadelphia, traveling to face other nationally ranked teams. Benn was the club's most adaptable component. One night he would play point guard. A few nights later he would be inside, grappling with taller forwards.

Still, it wasn't yet clear to Benn that he had a future in Division I.

"My friend, Tim Smith, was our point guard," Benn says. "At that time I really didn't know much about AAU ball or how good other players were. He was the first person to take me to the Prime Time Shootout. I just thought I wasn't good enough to play with everybody else. So I felt like I had to work real hard."

The results were promising. His role expanded as Dougherty's national profile grew. College coaches there to scout Lowry and other notables began to notice Benn's relentless determination and defensive acumen. Siena offered a scholarship and Benn accepted at a point in his basketball career where he had yet to start a high school game.

In 2003-04, Benn exited Dougherty for Cherokee High School in New Jersey. The environment was new and it offered a series of adjustments, both on and off the floor.

"It was just real different," he says. "They were good people but it was an environment I wasn't used to."

When he graduated high school, Benn mulled his options. In the end he elected to enroll at Hargrave Military Academy, one of the nation's foremost prep schools with a long list of notable hoops graduates.

"It was more structured than I was used to," he says. "Your whole day was planned out for you. It was a whole lot of discipline. When you get there they tell you that you're there for one reason, academics. I got my grades in good shape."

The basketball was an adjustment too. His teammates included a number of former high school standouts being courted by some of the country's most accomplished college programs.

"Everybody was used to being the man on their teams," he says. "I was like the only one who hadn't been the man on his team."

That experience, though, proved invaluable. Benn was accustomed to finding his own niche and did so in prep school. What's more, he became chief counsel to his teammates as they struggled to find their respective roles on the perennial powerhouse.

Although he often came off the bench, Benn's contributions were meaningful and he began to see schools from major conferences take an interest in him. Texas and Wake Forest spent time with him and some of the Philadelphia Big Five schools were in the mix as well.

Villanova was on the scene too. Benn knew the Wildcats staff well from its recruitment of Lowry. Yet he wasn't sure if he was on the staff's radar until midway through his year at Hargrave.

"I really didn't know that they were watching me to see if I had gotten better," he says. "I came to a couple of Kyle's games but I wasn't really thinking about coming here. But then they asked if I was still open in my recruitment and I said `sure.' I already knew that Coach Wright and his staff were good people.

"I trusted Coach Wright and the staff. That was big for me. I liked the players. Plus, it was close to home. After my year at Hargrave I decided I didn't like being away from home as much as I thought I would."

Benn became the final addition to Villanova's class of 2009 when he inked a letter of intent in the spring. He comes to a squad ranked as high as No. 2 nationally in preseason polls, one with virtually its entire cast back after advancing within a single point of the Final Eight.

The notion of improving through the daily competition appeals to Benn. He is very familiar with providing intangibles to strong clubs. That's what he has done throughout his career to this point.

"I just play hard," he says. "I try to help my team win. I've never been the man on any of my teams. I was only a starter for part of my high school career. I'm just a basketball player who wants to help my team win."

Like his fellow freshmen - Dwayne Anderson, Dante Cunningham, and Frank Tchuisi -Benn is eagerly anticipating the start of his freshman season, which begins on Nov. 18 at the Pavilion against Stony Brook. In fact, not long ago after a workout in the Jake Nevin Field House the group began pantomiming the walk through the student section it will make during Pavilion home games.

"We were like, `let's run down the section like they do before games,'" says Benn. "It was just funny. We know we're going to be nervous. But all of us just can't wait."