Ben Carlson: More Than Just A Jump Shot
Ben Carlson — East Ridge High School - Class of 2020 - University of Wisconsin Commit
The middle child of five, Ben Carlson, spent much of his childhood growing up understanding what it’s like to be part of a team. He and his siblings would play board games, work out, and get shots up together in the driveway of their home in Woodbury, Minnesota. As anyone growing up in the Midwest can attest, winters are bone-chilling. However, Ben saw them as a chance to be adventurous and more importantly for any kid, to get a week off from school. Whether it was snowball fights with his brothers, playing with the neighbors, or sledding down hills with his sisters, he used his winters as an opportunity to build stronger bonds with his friends and family. He knows that those bonds are what made him the person he is today.
Ben’s father, Marc, is the CIO at one of America's premier agribusiness and food companies, Land O’Lakes and his mother, Sheri, is a retired teacher and now stay-at-home mom for Ben and his siblings. They’re a pretty competitive family. Marc played basketball at Iowa State and Sheri was a Hall of Fame volleyball player at St. Cloud State. His older sister, Brynn, plays volleyball at Kansas State and his younger sister, Britt, isn’t far behind with Division I basketball and volleyball offers likely in her future. His younger brother, Brayden, is heading to high school next year with an eye on continuing his passion for baseball.
Growing up, Ben was a pretty quiet and shy kid. He was and still is deeply into Star Wars (special shout out to Baby Yoda). He’d set up shop in his room making buildings out of Legos or mastering Madden on his Nintendo Wii. Now he sees his eight-year-old brother, Bode, playing with those exact same Legos and video games. Yet as he’s grown older, he’s begun venturing out beyond his comfort zone. Now, he’s maintained that laid back demeanor while also becoming more comfortable opening up to others. His personality has become somewhat similar to his taste in music from the calm stylings of country musicians like Thomas Rhett and Luke Combs to the hyped-up beats of Lil Uzi and Migos.
A major part of that balance can be attributed to his participation in sports. Whether it was baseball, football, or now basketball, he’s found a way to use his desire to be active as a jumping off point for becoming more social and outgoing. Yet for Ben, he wanted to make sure he was known for more than just his jump shot. He kept that in mind during his recruitment and hopes to continue to prove that in Madison.
The recruiting process “felt like forever” for the future Wisconsin Badger and he could only describe his reaction to it as “stressing at times, appreciating it at others, and feeling relieved when it was over.” His parents aided him throughout. They’ve always preached having a strong work ethic, telling him “you have to work hard because there will always be others who work just as hard.” The recruiting process was the culmination of that hard work.
Although they trusted Ben to make his own decision, they also wanted to make sure their son had all the information he needed to fully evaluate each school. He admits, “they were pretty good at reading people and knowing what their intentions were. If something was off in what a player or coach said, they picked it up. They just have a lot more experience reading people and it’s something I’ve definitely improved upon as I’ve gotten older and listened to them.” He’s also thankful for his girlfriend of two years, Olivia, who was his sounding board after recruiting visits and calls. Says Ben, “I knew at the end of the day, it had to be where I wanted to go because I’m the one going to school.” He kept that decision within his inner circle as long as possible before choosing to make it public. That way, he could trust his gut-feeling and not allow others last minute chances to dissuade him from his choice.
“[Sujay and Ross] know the real me and don’t take into account all the popularity that comes with the game. I know that they’re with me no matter what my future holds.
Recruiting and the publicity that came with it made Ben’s schedule more hectic. That meant sometimes sacrificing time with his friends and being astute with his time management. Says Ben, “I make sure to make time to see my close friends. My two closest, Sujay and Ross, think all of the attention is pretty cool. They know the real me and don’t take into account all the popularity that comes with the game. I know that they’re with me no matter what my future holds.” They know he’s still that same kid who’s “eaten two bags of peanuts before every game since middle school.”
He knows others that enter into his life could be negative. For Ben, negative criticism doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. He’s learned that “some people are always going to be like that and you just have to let it go.” He now ignores disparaging remarks like “athletes aren’t smart or if it wasn’t for their athletic ability, they wouldn’t be doing anything with their lives.” For him, none of that will matter once he demonstrates his business intelligence at the conclusion of his basketball career.
Over the past four years, he’s learned those types of lessons. He recalls his time as a freshman, saying “all the seniors would talk about their high school experiences and I was so innocent. I’d never been through any of those things.” It was a learning experience on and off the court, which led to some memorable moments later on. He recalls their state championship run to the semifinals during his junior season saying, “we had three Division I guys on our team. We should’ve made it to the championship game. It was still memorable because that group we had was so talented and special.” It was particularly rewarding for him considering their success despite the coaching carousel at East Ridge during Carlson’s high school tenure.
Consequently, he’s looking forward to some much-needed stability at Wisconsin, noting, “I had three head coaches during my four years in high school and only one assistant coach all four years, that being Justin Lorang.” Lorang quickly became one of Carlson’s favorite coaches, always helping him out when he needed to get extra on-court work to take the next step in his game, something Lorang knew about as a former walk-on at Minnesota.
More recently, Head Coach Josh Peltier made an impact on Carlson during their short time at East Ridge. Described by Carlson as “really personable, positive, and encouraging,” Josh was there through the final stages of Ben’s recruitment. “He pushed me to get 2,000 points,” recalls Ben, “and kept telling me how much he and the coaching staff believed in me. They always knew I was talented, but also knew I could be even better.” Ben does see the bright side to the constant coaching changes, saying “you go into each year with an open attitude. You learn to adapt quickly.” It helped that Coach Peltier and his staff knew the team had a good system in place and only made minor adjustments.”
Now, he can focus on getting ready for the next chapter of his life. He’s looking forward to being on a competitive team on a beautiful campus with the opportunity to fish on nearby lakes. He sees fishing “as a huge bonding opportunity,” that he hopes will allow him to transition even quicker into “a group of great guys both on the team and staff.” Looking back Ben realizes “it was great to get to know the team during [his] official visit, but there’s a lot more to know before it helps build a bond on the court.” He’s spoken to Brad Davidson and Micah Potter the most. They said to “enjoy the time at home because once it gets started, it’s full speed.” After speaking with his future teammates, he feels assured that Wisconsin will be a place where he could prove he’s mentally adept both on and off the court.
Ben’s always been a high-level thinker and sometimes over-thinker. He admits, “I like to analyze things a lot…usually for a day or two before eventually moving on from it. I’ll do this all internally, looking at a situation from different angles.” On the court, he’ll initially get upset at himself and try to make up for a mistake on the next play, whether by getting a rebound or trying to generate a turnover. He’ll play through any officiating mistakes, remaining calm and collected the entire time. Yet, when the game is over, he reevaluates every play in his head for the next 24 hours. He’s figured out how to decompress, however, whether playing Fortnite with his brother (who is better than him at the moment) or heading to Starbucks or Chipotle with his friends, he’s learned how to keep his overanalyzing of situations to a minimum.
His self-critical nature, however, usually works out to his benefit. As part of his admission to Wisconsin, he also received direct admittance to their business school. An entrepreneurial mindset is not a foreign concept for Ben, who started his own shoe selling company called @KindaNiceShoes back in February 2019. It all started when Ben and his long-time friend Sujay realized they had shoes they weren’t using. They sold those shoes for $200, which they used to buy more shoes, eventually building the business up through Instagram by selling 400 pairs of shoes for thousands of dollars in profit. For Ben, he’s hoping ventures like this along with a 4.0+ GPA will show that athletes have just as much intelligence and business acumen as anyone else. He knows that some may think otherwise, but he looks forward proving that he’s more than just a jump shot.