1/14/2018 basketball Edit

High-major schools starting to take notice of 2019 SG Ben Roderick

Jon McNamara • BadgerBlitz

Editor

Jon McNamara is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has covered UW athletics since 2002 and has worked at Rivals.com since 2006.

Ben Roderick currently holds three offers from schools in the Mid-American Conference - Akron, Ohio and Toledo - in addition to opportunities from Stony Brook and Tennessee-Martin.

By the end of the winter, though, his scholarship list will likely include high-major programs from across the Midwest.

"First I have offers from three MAC schools, but I have been talking to Ohio State, Iowa, Nebraska and am starting to hear from Xavier and Wisconsin," Roderick told BadgerBlitz.com. "I think a lot of the coaches like that I'm a three-level scorer and having kind of a smoothness; not rushing shots or forcing it but letting the game come to me."

A 6-foot-5, 185-pound shooting guard, Roderick, who already has over 800 career points at Olentangy Liberty High School in Ohio, played in front of the Badgers' on Saturday. Wisconsin currently has two players from the Buckeye State - Khalil Iverson and D'Mitrik Trice - on head coach Greg Gard's roster.

"They (UW) just started watching me over the past couple weeks so it’s pretty new," Roderick said. "But I’m excited to learn what they have to offer because they're a great basketball school.

"Just the rich basketball history and making those deep tournament runs in the past couple years stands out to me about Wisconsin."

Earlier this winter, Roderick, who is working on setting up a trip to Xavier, took a visit to Ohio State.

"I went to watch them when they played Michigan and it was a great game," Roderick said. "I’ve known coach (Ryan) Pedon since last year when he was at Butler and he said he is going to come to watch me play this year, either high school or AAU.

"Since I’m from Columbus, playing for OSU has always something that I’ve wanted to do. But I still have time before I need to make any decisions."

Roderick, who is averaging over 25 points per game this season, is also receiving recruiting interest as a wide receiver, but said his future is likely on the hardwood.

"I'm hearing from schools here and there for football, but as of right now I’m looking to play basketball in college," he said.

Wisconsin could have as many as five scholarships to work with in the 2019 class. At this point, the staff has extended offers to Zeke Nnaji, D.J. Carton, Nobal Days and Matthew Hurt.