From Trevon Hughes to Jordan Taylor, the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team has had its share of explosive scoring guards in recent years. Freshman guard Ben Brust will look to add his name to that impressive list before his time in Madison comes to an end.
Brust played his high school ball at Mundelein High School in Mundelein, IL, where he scored 27.5 points per game in his senior season. He deservedly received plenty of attention by basketball programs throughout the nation before committing to Bo Ryan’s Badgers.
However, as is the case with all freshmen, Brust must now attempt to make the challenging transition from high school basketball, where he was a star, to college basketball, where he is a player looking to prove that he has the work ethic necessary to become a solid player.
According to Brust, the biggest obstacle in terms of adjusting to the college game has been the rapid tempo of the game relative to high school basketball.
“Everything is just a step faster,” Brust said. “Your decision-making has to be a little quicker in order to keep up.”
However, despite the challenges that lie ahead of Brust, associate head coach Greg Gard believes Brust has the skills, attitude, and drive needed to become a key player for the Badgers.
“His work ethic is very good and I think that’s where his positive personality helps him so much,” Gard said. “He doesn’t seem to have a lot of peaks and valleys in terms of what he brings everyday to practice. He’s always ready to go and doesn’t seem to have a down day which will help him when he gets older because there will be times when he will struggle and shots won’t fall for him and I think he’s pretty well built mentally and works hard enough to handle all those things.”
Brust’s natural talent has also impressed teammates, including star junior guard Jordan Taylor.
“Ben is a scorer,” Taylor said. “He can score in a lot of different ways. He can take it to the rim and slash with the ball. He’s made a large variety of shots that I almost didn’t even know existed, to be honest.”
Despite his heralded scoring ability, Gard noted that one big adjustment for Brust will be improving his defending due to the differences in what is required of players at the two levels.
“I think one thing high school players go through in terms of transition is recognizing the importance of every possession, not just offensively and taking care of the ball and getting good shots, but defensively too,” Gard said. “A lot of times star players in high school don’t have to play great defense and are often not put on the opposing team’s best player in order to protect them and keep them out of foul trouble, whereas on this level you have to guard everybody and I think that’s been one adjustment for him.”
Only time will tell if Ben Brust will develop into the player he is clearly capable of becoming. If he continues to put in the work and keep his spirits up, he certainly has the talent to get more minutes and eventually break into the Wisconsin starting lineup.
As Taylor said, “The sky is the limit for Ben.”