The basketball résumé is impressive. Hinsdale Central’s Ben Oosterbaan put together a monster senior season.
Oosterbaan was the go-to player for a team that won a school-record 31 games, averaging 20.3 points, six rebounds and nearly two steals a game. He shot 42 percent from the three-point line (44 for 106) and broke Brian Wardle’s single-season scoring record with 707 points.
He was a Sun-Times All-Area selection and All-State choice and, most recently, was named MVP of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association all-star game earlier this month.
Oosterbaan looked the part of a scholarship player who would have had a ton of Division I interest if not for the fact he did all of this while being a Big Ten baseball recruit. The 6-6 Oosterbaan committed to the Michigan baseball program two years ago as a sophomore.
But now, just before reporting to Ann Arbor, Oosterbaan has had a change of heart. He just wants to hoop.
Oosterbaan has been released from his Michigan letter of intent and will pursue his love for basketball. He’s already heard from several schools from all levels of Division I and is poised to hear from a whole lot more.
The epiphany of what sport he wanted to play and compete in at the next level happened over time. But it finally came to a head earlier this summer.
Oosterbaan was outside his house shooting baskets in the driveway in early June, envisioning himself playing college basketball, he says, when it finally became clear to him. He texted his older brother, Jack, who is a sophomore at Michigan, and told him, “I’m going to play basketball.”
He didn’t want to make a rash decision, so he sat on that tough-to-make decision for a couple of weeks, he said. But he knew where his heart was and where he was headed.
“Throughout this past season I kept thinking to myself, ‘This is too much fun,” Oosterbaan said of playing basketball. “My interest level in the sport was just too high to give it up.”
Those thoughts first crept in over a year ago. Following a regional loss to Curie as a junior, Oosterbaan remembers thinking long term, down the road.
“Even then, after that loss, I thought to myself, ‘If this all does end after my senior year, that isn’t going to feel right,’” he said. “There is too much basketball left in me.
“I love this game too much to give it up.”
He’s a player with size and versatility, capable of scoring in multiple ways as an old-school bucket-getter. While playing with some fire and gusto, Oosterbaan became an ultra-productive player for a team that won 23 straight games at one point.
Oosterbaan’s upside coincides with the fact he’s never spent 12 months a year playing basketball. In fact, he never played AAU basketball on the grassroots level as he was always playing baseball in the spring and summer.
“I think now, with the training I’m going to get for basketball, including my weight training that will be geared more towards basketball, II can continue to improve that much more,” Oosterbaan said.
