Benedict Jay Poquette (born May 7, 1955) is a retired American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA). Born in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

, he graduated from

East Lansing High School East Lansing High School is a public high school in the city of East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It is managed by the East Lansing Public Schools district. The school is located about a mile north of the Michigan State University campus. ...

and

Central Michigan University Central Michigan University (CMU) is a public research university in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Established in 1892 as the Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute, the private normal school became a state institution and renamed Cen ...

. He was drafted by the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at Li ...

in the second round (36th pick) of the 1977 NBA Draft, and played for them in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

– 79. He also played for the

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference, Northwest Division (NBA), ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

– 83, the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

– 87, and the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...

in 1987 (his last season in the NBA). His best seasons in the league occurred while playing for the Utah Jazz. The Jazz franchise had just arrived in Salt Lake City in 1979 after five mostly unsuccessful seasons in New Orleans. The team was thin up front, having traded away top big men

Rich Kelley Richard Ryland Kelley (born March 23, 1953) is an American retired basketball player. Kelley played college basketball at Stanford University and was the first round pick (7th pick overall) of the New Orleans Jazz in the 1975 NBA draft. Kelley ...

Spencer Haywood Spencer Haywood (born April 22, 1949) is an American former professional basketball player and Olympic gold medalist. Haywood is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2015. High school career In 1964, Haywo ...

, Joe C. Meriweather, and

Truck Robinson Leonard Eugene "Truck" Robinson (born October 4, 1951) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Washington Bullets (1974–77), Atlanta Hawks (1977), New Orle ...

in the previous two seasons. Despite being relatively undersized at 6'9" and 235 pounds, Poquette was tasked with replacing the 7'0" Kelley at center. Poquette posted modest averages of 9.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per game in his four seasons with Jazz, but excelled at shot-blocking, setting franchise records for most blocks in a career (517 in 321 games) and single season (174 in 1980-81). Notably, Poquette also had the somewhat dubious distinction of leading the NBA in personal fouls during that 1980-81 season, with 342 total fouls committed.

External links

Basketball Reference page on Ben Poquette
1955 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Italy American men's basketball players Basketball players from Ann Arbor, Michigan Centers (basketball) Central Michigan Chippewas men's basketball players Chicago Bulls players Cleveland Cavaliers players Detroit Pistons draft picks Detroit Pistons players Nuova Pallacanestro Gorizia players Power forwards (basketball) Utah Jazz players {{1950s-US-basketball-bio-stub

See also

External links