A friend of UE commit Christian Benzon tweeted this picture of the guard signing his binding letter of intent to the Aces’ coaching staff.

Christian Benzon tweeted Tuesday night, “It feels right being a future part of UE!”

The 6-foot-4 guard out of The Rock School in Gainesville, Fla. — a third-year Danish exchange student — then discussed with me how he ended up becoming one of two commitments secured by Aces men’s basketball coaches during the spring signing period.

UE wasn’t among your original list of interested schools. How did the coaching staff find you? “They saw me at an exposure event here (in Florida) a month ago. I was at this event and they called me. I looked up the University of Evansville and found it interesting. I was talking to the coaches, and it sounded really exciting.”

What exactly was exciting about it? “The thing that really caught me was that it’s such a small school, but they still compete at a high level. I thought that was really big. You can go there and get a great education. You can work with the teachers, and at the same time you can compete with big schools like Wichita State and Drake.”

What kind of player are you? “I would say I feel comfortable playing anywhere from one through three on the court.”

Did you get to meet your future teammates on your campus visit over the weekend? “I got to meet most of them. I didn’t meet the freshmen, but I met the other guys. They seem like good guys with great character — a bunch of sweet, good guys.”

How did you end up in the United States? “I was playing at a tournament with my Danish high school over here, and I got to talk to a head coach in Gainesville. Basically, from that point on we worked on me trying to get over here and play.”

How often do you get to go home? “The last time I was home was in July. I get home at least once a year, hopefully.”

How out of the ordinary is that for Danish players? “It’s a commitment, and I know lots of people who are doing it too. If you want to pursue what you really want to do, you’ve got to make some sacrifices. That’s one of them.”

Do you know when you’ll be on campus, and what do you want to work on this summer? “I don’t know yet, but this summer I’m hopefully going to work on my ball handling, my shooting and my physicality, I’d think.”

Tyler Ptacek

Back on Oct. 29, 2012, UE’s men’s basketball staff landed two verbal commitments in one day from high school seniors.

Aces coaches did it again Tuesday when Tyler Ptacek, a 6-foot-2 guard at Padua Franciscan (Ohio) High School and former UNC Wilmington signee, added his pledge following one earlier in the day from The Rock (Fla.) School guard Christian Benzon.

Ptacek tweeted the news just after 9 p.m. to round out what will be a five-player incoming recruiting class for UE once he and Benzon sign binding letters of intent. Both players made their decision with the NCAA’s signing period, which ends Wednesday, winding down.

Ptacek received a release from UNC Wilmington a week ago and immediately showed interest in UE as well as NCAA tournament Cinderella Florida Gulf Coast. He’s from the Cleveland suburbs not far from UE signee Duane Gibson out of Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School.

Other Aces signees include Fishers High School guard Jaylon Brown and Castle High School forward Blake Simmons, son of coach Marty Simmons.

Known for his shooting abilities, Ptacek averaged 19.2 points per game as a senior at Padua while becoming the school’s career scoring leader. Rivals.com and ESPN both rank him as a two-star prospect.

Officially committed to the University of Evansville.

— ▲†▲†▲ (@Mister_1017) May 15, 2013

Me & Boo gun make sum noise as the backcourt, putting on for the Cleveland area!

— ▲†▲†▲ (@Mister_1017) May 15, 2013

Christian Benzon

Following an official visit to UE over the weekend, combo guard Christian Benzon committed to Aces coaches this morning and will sign a binding letter of intent upon his return to The Rock School in Gainesville, Fla.

Benzon’s high school coach, Justin Harden, confirmed news that his third-year Danish exchange student will attend UE.

“He’s a really hard worker,” Harden said. “Not a great shooter, but he works extremely hard at it and all the things he needs to do to become a better player. He has a good basketball IQ — has grown a lot since he’s gotten here and become a lot tougher adapting to the American brand of basketball.”

Harden said that at 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, Benzon is a slasher-type guard who excels in the open floor using techniques such as the Euro step, where a player picks up his dribble and moves in two different directions before taking a shot.

Benzon led The Rock in scoring as a junior but accepted a more defensive-minded role as a senior, averaging about 10 points per game on a team that played a nine-man rotation.

Schools such as South Alabama, Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast offered the two-star prospect by ESPN.com scholarships early in his recruitment. As the NCAA’s signing period wound down (it ends Wednesday), interest waned.

“Not many people were jumping at the opportunity to do it,” Harden said. “He’s been under-recruited, I guess. I don’t know how else to say it. I think he could have gone to a high-major school and had a lot of success. He’ll have immediate success at a place like Evansville. A lot of schools passed up on the opportunity to get him, and he’s going to make them pay for that.”

Benzon has a 3.7 grade-point average, lists his favorite school subject as math and served as team captain at The Rock, a private Christian school, during his junior and senior seasons.

Upon receipt of Benzon’s letter of intent, UE will have a four-player incoming recruiting class. Fishers (Ind.) High School guard Jaylon Brown, Villa Angela-St. Joseph’s (Ohio) guard Duane Gibson and Castle High School forward Blake Simmons, son of coach Marty Simmons, each signed in November.

Benzon in the news:
Dec. 15, 2011: A to Z with Christian Benzon (Gainesville.com)
Sept. 30, 2012: Dodge Florida Shootout report (sourcehoops.com)
Nov. 21, 2012: Sports Xpress recruiting Xclusive (ihigh.com)
May 1, 2013: Florida Independent all-state teams (FloridaHoops.com)

A former North Carolina Wilmington signee now lists UE in his top two schools, according to a report published Wednesday by midwest recruiting website 3rd Coast Hoops.

The report says Tyler Ptacek, a senior shooting guard at Padua Franciscan (Ohio) High School, could decide between Aces and 2013 NCAA tournament Cinderella Florida Gulf Coast.

Ptacek received a release from his letter of intent with UNC Wilmington and has since drawn interest from UE’s staff, Miami (Ohio) and that of Florida Gulf Coast, which hired Kansas assistant Joe Dooley after Andy Enfield led the Eagles to the NCAA Sweet 16.

UE hasn’t reportedly offered Ptacek a scholarship, though the Aces’ staff has up to two spots it can fill. Another player under consideration now that junior college guard Ben Vozzola committed to Cal State Northridge over the weekend is Virginia native Travis Hester, who visited UE the same weekend as Vozzola in late April.

Known for his shooting abilities, Ptacek averaged 19.2 points per game as a senior at Padua while becoming the school’s career scoring leader. Rivals.com and ESPN both rank him as a two-star prospect.

Ptacek is from the Cleveland suburbs not far from UE signee Duane Gibson out of Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School. Other Aces signees include Fishers High School guard Jaylon Brown and Castle High School forward Blake Simmons, son of coach Marty Simmons.

The NCAA’s spring signing period lasts just one more week.

Blake Simmons played against fellow UE signee Jaylon Brown Saturday.

Two UE signees combined to score 52 of the 128 points tallied Saturday in a consolation game of North Central High School’s tournament in Indianapolis.

Fishers High School guard Jaylon Brown had 16 points in his team’s 67-61 win, and Castle High School forward Blake Simmons posted a season-high 36 points in the loss.

The game marked the first ever meeting between Castle and Fishers, pitting the two future Aces against one another.

Simmons entered averaging 20.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game this season. Brown also averages in double figures.

Both Simmons, son of coach Marty Simmons, and Brown signed binding letters of intent during the NCAA’s early period in November.

They make up a 2013 recruiting class that also includes Cleveland point guard Duane Gibson out of Villa Angela-St. Joseph’s High School.

UE on Monday announced a three-player 2013 signing class. Current high school seniors were able to sign and submit binding letters of intent starting last Wednesday, and future Aces Jaylon Brown, Blake Simmons and Duane Gibson each did that.

With the announcement, coach Marty Simmons can for the first time comment about his recruits.

Simmons on Jaylon Brown, a 5-foot-11 point guard from Fishers (Ind.) High School: “We’ve been recruiting him for a long time and just stayed with it and stayed with it. We were able to get he and his dad down here unofficially, and then his mother came down unofficially. We were able to get up there too. He’s just a terrific young man – great family. I think he just really liked it here and fit in. I’ve told you before, I think our players are the best recruiting tool. I think he really liked our guys and felt the family-type atmosphere. He’s a special young man. He’s fast. He’s quick. He’s athletic. He has the ability to get to the rim. As good as he is now, he’s going to continue getting better and better.”

Simmons on his son, Blake Simmons, a 6-foot-5 swing man out of Castle High School (who will be on athletic scholarship at UE): “It’s pretty exciting, to be quite honest. He’s worked really hard for a long, long time to have this opportunity. He’s a very good player. He puts a lot into it, and I think his skills, talents and abilities fit the way we want to play and the things we do. I’m just really looking forward to being able to coach him.”

Simmons on Duane Gibson, a 6-foot-3 guard from Villa Angela-St. Josheph High School in Cleveland: “(His recruitment) was more recent. Just through a mutual contact, somebody had let us know there’s a really good guard in the Ohio area, and we got on it right away. It’s a really heralded program that’s had a lot of really good players come out of there. We went up and watched right away and fell in love with him out of the gate. It was a situation where his high school coach went way out of his way – actually the coaching staff are brothers – to bring him down to a game. I think it was the Southern Indiana game. They really liked the atmosphere and everything, and they were on campus – they liked the small campus. I just think the young man was ready to make a decision, and we certainly liked what we saw in him.”

UE has one scholarship to fill either in this spring’s regular signing period or with the 2014 class. Simmons said his staff is still recruiting and won’t wait until next year to fill that scholarship if they find the right player.

So what kind of prospect?

“That’s always up for debate,” Simmons said. “I think right now we’d look more for what we call a combo guard — somebody who can play both the point and two — probably more the two. Just someone with good ball handling experience. But at the end of the day, if you’ve got one (scholarship) and a very good player is available, then we’ve got to take the best available player.”

Villa Angela-St. Joseph’s High School coach Babe Kwasniak tweeted a photo captioned “Proud coach” on Friday after UE commit Duane Gibson (right) announced that he’s signed with the Aces.

Duane Gibson, a senior point guard at Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School in Cleveland, celebrated signing his letter of intent to UE on Friday with Vikings teammate Demonte Flannigan, who’s headed to Cleveland State.

Gibson said he actually signed and sent his letter on Wednesday, the first day of the NCAA’s early period, and sent it to the Aces’ staff.

“It’s nice to not have to worry about it anymore,” he said. “When I’m playing in my high school games, I’ll be able to focus more out there.”

Gibson is part of a three-player 2013 recruiting class for the Aces along with Fishers (Ind.) High School guard Jaylon Brown and Castle forward Blake Simmons, son of coach Marty Simmons.

All three have signed their binding letters of intent, and UE expects to announce its class officially on Monday.

A 6-foot-3 guard, Gibson averaged 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists as a junior. Between now and when he arrives on campus, Gibson said he’s going to work more on his mid-range jump shooting.

Oh, and the top-rated point guard in Cleveland as rated by scouting service Triple Double Prospects has another goal.

“I want to win a state championship this year,” Gibson said. “I’m a pass-first player. I try to get my team involved, and I look for my shot when it’s needed.”

Gibson’s Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School competes in Ohio’s Division IV, for schools with the smallest enrollment in the state, but he said “our schedule this year is like a Division I schedule.”

Added VASJ coach Babe Kwasniak: “Duane Gibson is a special player. I expect him to have a stellar career playing for that staff at Evansville.”