Ben Bentil named a finalist for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar award

Left off a few All-America teams, the BIG EAST's Most Improved Player of the Year has had his fair share of snubs lately. But good luck seems to be going his way now, as Thursday saw the Wilmington, Delaware native drop 38 points in a win over the Butler Bulldogs to send him and his Friars to the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament.

Friday, that stretch of good luck continued, as Bentil was named as one of five finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award.

Bentil joins Jakob Poeltl (Utah Utes), Domantas Sabonis (Gonzaga Bulldogs), A.J. Hammons (Purdue Boilermakers) and Joel Bolomboy (Weber State Wildcats) as possible recipients for the award which will be handed out on Friday, April 8, 2016 in Los Angeles, California.

Bentil certainly has proved that he belongs amongst the elite in college basketball this season. He's constantly shown himself to be a brilliant and dynamic scorer and has been decent enough on defense as well to get by. His numbers are pretty similar to those that he's surrounded himself by, especially so for points scored per 100 possessions, as Bentil's 36.1 mark hovers around the territory with Hammons, Sabonis, Bolomboy and Poeltl.

No telling if Bentil will be taking home the hardware in April, but it's nice to see him finally be recognized for something these days from a national perspective.