[lawrence-newsletter]As I began research for my Locked On Badgers interview with 2020 Wisconsin signee Ben Carlson, one of the first stops I made was D1 Minnesota’s website. D1 Minnesota was Carlson’s AAU program, and is widely known as one of the top programs in the state of Minnesota. Their alumni list on the website quickly alerted me that Carlson was far from the only chapter in the D1 to Madison story. In fact, five Wisconsin Badgers on the roster next season will have played their AAU basketball at D1 Minnesota. Those five are Nate Reuvers, Tyler Wahl, Walt Mcgrory, Ben Carlson and Steven Crowl, the final two both being members of the 2020 Wisconsin class. So how did Wisconsin end up with over a third of their roster being from the same AAU pipeline including two of their 2020 commits?
“A lot of players who play at D1 fit the Wisconsin style of play really well,” Carlson told BadgersWire. The four-star future Badger went on to add, “I think the biggest thing is that a lot of the players at D1 Minnesota play similar to how Wisconsin has in the past, and how they still do to this day.”
There is obviously also a deep-seated connection between the Wisconsin coaching staff and the D1 Minnesota coaches and directors. “I know there are some connections between the coaches and the directors at D1 and the Wisconsin coaches,” said Carlson on the Locked On Badgers podcast. “They know each other really well and I think there is a lot of communication between them.”
According to Carlson, if there is one trait that connects players who come out of the D1 Minnesota program and who play at/are recruited by Wisconsin it is something that has to do with them as a person rather than just as a basketball player.
“I definitely think that D1 has a lot of high character guys and I know Wisconsin has that too so thats definitely a similarity.”
The D1 Minnesota to Wisconsin pipeline has become the most popular route for players to take en route to the Kohl Center. Having dominated the Minnesota recruiting landscape over the past few years may be the thing that leads Wisconsin to new heights in 2020-2021.