South Carolina lands big man Benjamin Bosman-Verdonk
South Carolina men’s basketball has its big in the transfer class.
The Gamecocks landed a commitment from Benjamin Bosman-Verdonk, a former four-star player and top 100 prospect in the 2019 class.
Bosman-Verdonk started his career at Illinois but could never really crack the rotation. He’ll have every opportunity to earn playing time at South Carolina.
He comes from a winning program at Illinois. On3 considers Bosman-Verdonk the No. 148 transfer in the portal this season.
The Illini went 68-27 in the three seasons Bosman-Verdonk was there, including 44-16 in the Big 10 with a conference tournament and regular season title.
The Illini won two games in the NCAA Tournament as well, including one this year against a Lamont Paris coached Chattanooga team. The two will now link up at South Carolina.
Over a three-year career at Illinois Bosman-Verdonk played in 41 games with a pair of starts. He played 261 minutes in three seasons with 52 points and 64 rebounds.
The 6-foot-8 big man shot 44 percent from the field over his career and 38.1 percent from the free throw line (8-for-21).
Bosman-Verdonk’s impact could certainly be seen on the defensive side too. He finished with a career defensive box plus-minus of 2.9, including finishing over 3.0 in two of his three seasons at Illinois.
He’s coming off his best season, averaging career highs in minutes per game (7.8), field goal percentage (47.2), points (1.6) and rebounds (2.1).
He certainly fills a void for South Carolina, which lost two big men—Wildens Leveque and Ta’Quan Woodley—to UMass and needed more depth in the frontcourt.
“We definitely need some more athleticism. We need some more shooting and guys who can space the floor a little bit. Then we can take a bigger guy,” assistant Eddi Shannon said recently. “It’s a mix. We have three spots left. We feel like those are some of the things we feel like we need.”
Bosman-Verdonk is from Europe and played high school in Belgium before coming stateside for college.
On3 considers him the No. 51 player coming out of high school and the No. 10 power forward. He has two years of eligibility remaining.
He’s the first big man commitment for South Carolina in this cycle. The Gamecocks have commitments from guards Ebrima Dibba and Meechie Johnson to pair with wing/forward Hayden Brown.
Top 150 guard Zach Davis and win Daniel Sanford are high school players enrolling this summer as well.
The Gamecocks have two scholarships available now in the 2022 class.
