And after a reflective pause came a barely-audible afterthought: “But I try not to.”
Alex Bruskotter may have been sitting outside of Wright’s State’s Nutter Center dressing room following Thursday night’s 100-47 victory over Ohio Wesleyan – and his first-time appearance in one of the Raiders’ postgame media sessions – but the 6-foot-8 redshirt freshman guard was talking about videos from his glorious senior season at Shelby High.
That’s when he led the Whippets to the most wins in the history of the program and the school’s first-ever trip to the state basketball tournament.
That 25-3 campaign captured the imagination of the town of just under 9,300 northwest of Mansfield and when the team left for its state semifinal game at the University of Dayton Arena, all of Shelby’s grade school and middle school kids waved signs and cheered as they lined the path the varsity players took to get to their bus.
As the state-bound caravan was escorted out of town by police cars, the players got a hero’s sendoff from townsfolk who stood along the roadways and waved and cheered.
So, it’s no wonder Bruskotter enjoys reliving such moments again.
Everyone likes to see things that make them feel good. That’s why people watch the Wizard of Oz over and over again. It’s the same with Rocky and, this time of year, “It’s A Wonderful Life,” is always a holiday favorite.
And back in that 2023-2024 season, it was a wonderful life for Bruskotter.
He was named Ohio’s Division II Player of the Year and was a finalist for Ohio Mr. Basketball. After the season, he was the Ohio MVP of the Ohio-Kentucky All Star game and was invited to play in Italy.
Averaging 23.8 points per game as a senior, he had a game against Ashland where he made 12 of 19 three-point attempts and finished with 53 points in his team’s 84-61 victory.
In the state semifinal – which Shelby lost 68-65 to Zanesville Maysville – he scored 34 points, tying a state tournament semifinal record held by Trotwood Madison’s Torrey Patton.
Bruskotter ended his career with 1,690 points, second in Shelby history to the legendary Larry Siegfried, who scored 1,789 back in the mid-1950s and then went on to win a national title with Ohio State and five NBA crowns with the Boston Celtics.
But since he left Shelby High, Bruskotter has been like Dorothy when her house dropped out of the sky and into that strange land of Oz. She found herself far from the things she knew best and not quite sure how to get back to them.
Recruited to Wright State by Clint Sargent – who then was the Raiders’ associate head coach and top recruiter and since has become the head coach – Bruskotter ended up getting redshirted last season and spent the games in the shadows that come when you’re relegated to the far end of the bench.
“My redshirt year was pretty bad to be honest,” he admitted. “Early on it was a struggle.
“It was like I’d been on the mountaintop playing in front of 10,000 people alongside my best friends I’d known all my life and then having none of the attention on me. It was going from being the main guy to being the 13th guy. It took some adjusting. I had to find my way again.”
Even in this young season, he didn’t play in two of the first five games – losses to Cal and Toledo – and then got in just 52 seconds in the rout of Radford.
And that’s what made Thursday night so special.
He had some 20 folks from back home in the crowd, including his mom, Krista, and his dad Aaron, who was a catcher on the 1994 Wright State baseball team, the first to ever make the Division I NCAA Tournament.
His three siblings – Jay, Peyton and Becca – were also at the game, as was his sister-in-law, his four-year-old niece and both sets of grandparents.
And he gave them all a bit of a show … once again.
Sargent sent him into the game just 5½ minutes after the opening tip and he promptly hit his first three-point shot. Then he made his second trey attempt and followed that up with a turnaround jump shot near the baseline. Soon after that he had a steal and drove down the court for a rousing dunk.
He would end the night with 15 points.
The game was against a smaller Division III school and though his effort was something to be proud of, he hopes to soon be playing meaningful minutes against some of the top nonconference opponents left on the schedule, as well as against the Raiders’ most formidable Horizon League foes.
He said he’s worked hard on his game over the past year and thinks it’s going to work out, though in another moment of unfettered candidness, he admitted: “Nothing is certain…and that’s the scary part.”
But he said in the “quiet hours,” as the team calls them, he’s worked on building his confidence:
“That way when I’m on the stage again, everything will just carry over and come out naturally.”
‘Bigger than just this’
“I remember when Alex was like one, his dad would roll the basketball to him and he would roll it back – he just loved that,” said Krista Bruskotter, his mom.
By the time he was a junior in high school – averaging 22 points a game and receiving second team All-Ohio honors – Bruskotter was on the radar of several mid-major colleges, especially Wright State.
Sargent said they recruited him for longer than any player he can remember in his 10 seasons at WSU and in the end Bruskotter chose the Raiders over his other two finalists, Toledo and Belmont.
He said while “it’s cool for me to know there’s a bit of a legacy now in my family,” he stressed he didn’t choose Wright State because his dad went there and he had followed Raider baseball growing up.
“It was because of the coaches and the culture they built here,” he said. “With them it was about being hard-working, being hard-nosed and that’s what I was looking for.”
Sargent said a couple of things changed after he recruited Bruskotter:
He became the head coach after Scott Nagy left and then, he said, “we changed a little bit stylistically how we play. We really infused the team with a lot of athleticism, and we’re trying to guard the ball differently. All that takes an adjustment.”
Bruskotter worked on that on the only stage he had – the practice gym – and when it came to mental adjustment, he leaned on people who already had gone through the redshirt experience.
That included his roommate last year – Solomon Callaghan – and former graduate assistant Cole Gentry, who this year joined the Colorado State program as an assistant coach.
Some of his best advice came from his parents.
“It’s led to a lot of great father-and-son son talks,” Aaron said. “It made us closer in fact.
“Through it all I just stressed to control what you can and try to be the best teammate you can be, the best person, the best human being.
“The bottom line is life is bigger than just this.”
‘He’s close’
With the open-door transfer portal, the enticements of NIL deals elsewhere, and the social media propensity for instant gratification, many college athletes don’t have time for or a belief in the payoff of patience.
“We tried to stress to him that success isn’t always immediate. You have to persevere and keep working hard,” Krista said. “And then we just hoped he’d trust the process.”
That’s what he did – whether it was honing his three-point shot on the practice court or reshaping his body with the help of Cole Pittsford, WSU’s Director of Sports Performance – and it’s why he said he looked forward to Thursday’s game.
The Raiders had a couple of players sidelined and he hoped he’d get called sooner, rather than later, off the bench.
“I was looking forward to getting an opportunity to play with guys that I’ve been through the grind with the last four months,” he said afterward. “It was a great time tonight.”
Sargent liked what he saw from him:
“He was ready for the moment. And I liked his communication on defense: you could hear him out there.”
As for Alex’s offense, Sargent chuckled as stated the obvious:
“The best thing about him, he’s just fearless. We saw that with him in high school during that state tournament run. He made big shots. He didn’t hesitate. He really has a good moxie about him.
“The thing here was just transitioning from always having the green light like he did in high school and shooting it every time you touch the ball on offense. Here it was about being a little more aware of shot selection and the passing part of the game.
“He’s learning that and everything is starting to fall into place.
“And really, nothing in his development has been outside the norm for most freshmen. Everybody’s story, everybody’s timing is a little different.
“He’s close…so close.
“He’s got the physicality, the heart, the desire and that’s why I have no doubt he’s going to be a great player at Wright State.”
A hint of that showed in Thursday’s game and that’s why afterward there was a joyous courtside gathering with him – still in uniform – and his family and friends.
They told stories, took photos and everyone seemed to relish just seeing him smile again.
And this time, when his family left and he headed back to his apartment, there would be no need to pull out the old high school videos to remember the glory of the past.
He could just look back on this night as a window to the good times that can come.
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