When the lights dim in the Kohl Center Wednesday night, there will be one senior whose achievements the whole crowd will feel lucky to remember: Ben Brust.
In a way, one could say he is Wisconsin basketball personified.
It’s probably not far-fetched to say that Wisconsin is the most disciplined team in the country. The Badgers lead the nation in fewest turnovers per game and are tied for the lead in fewest personal fouls per game.
How did this happen? A big part of it is Brust playing 34.8 minutes per game.
Throughout his career, he has been a comically error-averse sharpshooter, exemplifying all of the traits that come to mind when the national audience thinks of Wisconsin basketball: 3-pointer after 3-pointer, extreme discipline and pesky defense.
“You’ve been on a picnic before, you’ve been camping, you’ve been outdoors; how big is a mosquito? Not very big. But, boy, can it be a nuisance,” said head coach Bo Ryan. “That’s pretty much what Ben does — if he happens to be on a bigger guy, he’s trying to pester them as much as he can. I know he’s a real nice, fine, young man, but when he wants to pester someone, he can.”
The shortest player in the Badgers’ lineup, the 6-ft-1-inch Brust has never doubted his own abilities.
“Never tell somebody who’s vertically challenged that they might not be good enough or might not be this, might not be that. He knew he was a good player,” Ryan said.
What’s crazy to think about is that Brust was very nearly banned from being a Badger, as he had signed a letter of intent to play for Iowa, but decommitted when the Hawkeyes fired then-head coach Todd Lickliter. Big Ten rules stipulated that Brust could not get a scholarship from any other conference school once he had signed, and it was only through a Wisconsin appeal and support from Iowa that Brust was given an exception.
Brust, then a consensus three-star combo guard from Mundelein, Ill., was expected to be a solid future cog. But he needed a little development first.
“The thing with Ben is that you look back to his freshman and sophomore year, he wasn’t a guy you saw diving on the floor a lot, wasn’t playing a whole lot of defense, probably hadn’t taken a charge in his whole career until he got here,” assistant coach Greg Gard said. “He’s a guy that figured out if [he’s] going to be on the floor consistently, [he’s] got to do some of these other things defensively, on the glass, understand how valuable every possession is, and add more to his game than just the 3-point shot. He’s done that.”
Through the years, that commitment to diversifying his game has shown itself more and more, like when he began his junior season with three points-and-rebounds double-doubles in four games. Or when he nabbed three steals in a row to keep his team competitive against Northwestern at home this year. Or shooting free throws, where he has evolved into the best percentage-wise shooter in the Big Ten, just a year removed from shooting a below-average 67.4 percent.
As he finishes his senior year, he won’t be remembered as a vocal leader but as a leader by example.
“Ben doesn’t yell at guys or get on guys or say too much outside of ‘let’s go.’ He’ll lead more by example. Coach Ryan always compliments him on always doing the correct things the Badger way,” freshman forward Nigel Hayes said. “As freshmen, we always see him getting the praise for doing the right things and we try to replicate that.”
This Badger way is all about consistency and playing as a team. Brust’s role is to always be moving, hoping to set up an open 3-point look.
Ryan has said that Brust comes off a screen as quick as any player he has ever coached. This has led to an abundance of career 3-pointers for Brust, who ranks fifth in Wisconsin history with 210 and counting.
However, one of those easily stands out above the rest.
We see it before every game at the Kohl Center, the 35-foot contested buzzer beater that blew the roof off the arena and sent the Badgers to overtime against an eventual national runner-up in Michigan.
When we see it one last time, it’ll be time to honor a player who has been nothing but a player to be exalted by Ryan and loved by fans, always ready to dive for the ball or shoot a 3-pointer, some more memorable than others.
As Brust said in one of his final practices before Senior Night, “I remember walking through the hallway and Jordan [Taylor] or Tim [Jarmusz] or Jon [Leuer] or all three of them told me ‘Enjoy it, because it’s going to go fast.’ Now, I’m that kid telling all of those guys ‘Enjoy it, because it’s going to go fast.’ It’s been a fun ride. I’m looking forward to doing what we can the rest of the way.”
