Ben Carlson

[NashvilleTNUteFan]

Reminds me so much of Riley Battin. Take that how you will

[The Miami Ute]

Just a guy.

[chinngiskhaan]

He’s better than Battin by quite a bit. Battin wasn’t a good shooter (and often passed up open looks), defender, or distributor. Carlson isn’t great, but he is decent at a lot of things. It is also important to remember that Riley Battin started for us somehow, and Ben Carlson is our 4th big man.

[The Miami Ute]

Chingis, where do you get that he’s better than Battin by quite a bit? Is that just your gut telling you that? If you dissect their stats, they’re essentially the same player with Battin actually being the better scorer. Battin averaged 6.3 PPG/3.6 RPG in his four years with Utah. So far, Carlson is averaging 5.4 PPG/4.4 RPG.

[chinngiskhaan]

Their career averages don’t tell the whole story. Battin got worse and worse pretty much every year at Utah. The player that Battin was as a freshman and Sophomore is not the player he was when he left Utah. For whatever reason, his confidence was destroyed and he became a reluctant shooter.

Battin’s Sr year averages: 17 minutes, 4.4 points, 3 boards, 27% from three, 41% from 2. Overall .4 bpm

Carlson (against a harder schedule so far): 6.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, 31% from three, 62% from 2. Overall 1.8 bpm.

The advanced stats and averages both suggest Carlson as a senior is better than Battin as a senior in just about every way.

the quite a bit part is the feeling a get from watching them. As little as I know about the game of football, I’m the opposite with basketball. I’ve lived and breathed the game since I was in 2nd grade. I don’t follow it quite like I used to, but I understand the game as much as anyone who does not get paid to participate in the game of basketball. Battin had a great freshman year, and a similar sophomore year… Then something happened and he turned into the basketball equivalent of a dumpster fire.

[The Miami Ute]

A harder schedule? Also, even though, so far, Carlson’s stats are better in both of their senior seasons, you can’t discount Battin’s superior stats from their freshmen through junior seasons. In my view, Battin was the better scorer while Carlson is the better rebounder. Battin averaged 33 percent from 3PT range in his four year career while Carlson is averaging 31 percent so far. Also, if you look at Battin’s Utah career stats, it’s in his senior season where he goes down. He averaged almost 7 PPG and had his best 3PT percentage during his junior season.

[chinngiskhaan]

Yes, a harder schedule. Look up the stats. SOS is much higher for this year’s team than last year’s at this point in the season.

I can discount Battin’s stats from earlier in his career. I can discount them, and I did discount them. So what? He got worse year over year.

This is a stupid thing to argue over. I could go deeper into this with statistics, but I’m not going to because this is a waste of time. Carlson is better than Battin. Neither of them are good.

[The Miami Ute]

You can do whatever you want but you won’t win the argument. Focusing on one 15 game stretch on some guy’s career and using that as the absolute marker to determine that he’s better than another player that played four full seasons with the same university is also intellectually dishonest. It’s the literal version of apples and oranges. Hell, I can put together a 15 game stretch of Battin’s career that would blow out of the water anything that Carlson has put together up to this point.

[chinngiskhaan]

Oh no, some rando on the internet thinks they won an argument about two mediocre ball players. Whatever will I do!

/s

[The Miami Ute]

What will you do? Use the totality of logic and facts when formulating an argument. That’s my recommendation.

[Charlie]

I think the item that favors Ben Carlson is as a bench player we simply do not depend on him much and he is serviceable in that role. Battin on the other hand we remember as a starter that we depended on more so. Could the same athlete disappoint as a starter but be more serviceable as a bench player? Ben is less noticed, good or bad, in the current rotation of bigs, a luxury Battin did not have. If Kata returns quickly and Lovering plays more like he did at the beginning of the year we might not notice.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Agree Charlie. He doesn’t play that many minutes. He has not developed any kind of role on offense. Comparing Batin to Carlson who cares? Both should be considered limited role players at best.