FAMU recruit Bent set to play at high level

Young Cecil Bent would run around the basketball court while his mother coached her middle school girls' team — until it was time to do the blindfold dribbling drill. That's when he joined in. Penny Tapley didn't mind. She was big on teaching fundamentals, and she thought that if her son matured into a basketball player he'd find the workout useful. She was right.

"It helped because when I was young, I would always look down and I couldn't see the whole floor," Bent said. "Now when I dribble, I can see the whole floor. It was very helpful."

Now 6-foot-9 and 290 pounds, Bent credits his mother for showing him how to get a full range of the floor by dribbling blindfolded. He regularly gets rave reviews for how he can find an open guard to dish the ball to for a basket when he played at Swainsboro (Ga.) High School.

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