Bennett Vander Plas (born September 19, 1998) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for

BC Šiauliai BC Šiauliai ( lt, Krepšinio klubas Šiauliai) is the professional basketball club of Šiauliai, Lithuania. The club competes in the Lithuanian Basketball League. It has won the 3rd place award (behind Lithuanian basketball giants Lietuvos Rytas ...

of the

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

(LKL). He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Ohio Bobcats The Ohio Bobcats are the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio University, located in Athens, Ohio, United States. Ohio University is a charter member (1946) of the Mid-Amer ...

and

Virginia Cavaliers The Virginia Cavaliers, also known as ''Wahoos'' or ''Hoos'', are the athletic teams representing the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers compete at the NCAA Division I level ( FBS for football), in the Atlantic C ...

. Vander Plas was the Division I Academic All-American of the Year in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

and

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

High school career

Vander Plas graduated from Ripon High School in

Ripon, Wisconsin Ripon is a city in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 7,733 at the 2010 census. The city is surrounded by the Town of Ripon. Ripon is home to the Little White Schoolhouse, the commonly recognized birthplace of ...

. Over his playing career he averaged 16 points, 10 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.8 steals while playing for his father Dean Vander Plas. He was a three-year team captain and earned First Team All-

East Central Conference The East Central Conference is a high school athletic conference of teams in the East Central Wisconsin area. The ECC was founded in 1970 and originally disbanded in 2007. The conference was revived for the 2015-2016 school year, the result of a r ...

three times. After both his junior and senior year he earned conference player of the year and first team all-state. As a senior he led Ripon to an undefeated regular season and a state tournament appearance. He played AAU basketball with the Wisconsin Playmakers. He was rated a 2-star recruit by Rivals and committed to

Ohio University Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...

College career

Ohio

Vander Plas

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

during the 2017-18 season with a leg injury. He averaged 8.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game during his freshman season In spite of only starting one game he earned MAC Freshman of the Year honors. He started all 31 games his

sophomore year In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

while averaging 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds a game. He was named All-MAC Third Team for the first time. He averaged 12.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists his junior season and earned All-MAC Third Team for the second straight season. He was named an Academic All-American after the season. He scored 26 points in the MAC tournament semi-final against Toledo and 9 points in the MAC Championship against Buffalo. Ohio upset defending national champion

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Vander Plas led Ohio with 17 points including 10 straight for the Bobcats near the end of the second half which saw the Bobcats go from down one to ahead by seven. Vander Plas averaged 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.1 assists for his senior season and notched only the fourth triple double in program history against

Central Michigan Central Michigan, also called Mid Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As its name implies, it is the middle area of the Lower Peninsula. Lower Michigan is said to resemble a mitten, and Mid Michigan cor ...

. He scored a career high 30 points in a home win against

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. He earned All-MAC First Team honors and was named Division I Academic All-American of the Year by the College Sports Information Directors of America, now known as College Sports Communicators (CSC). After five years at Ohio, Vander Plas had earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in communications, a

master’s degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in sport administration, and a master's degree in management. After the season he entered the transfer portal

Virginia

On April 23, 2022, Vander Plas announced that he had committed to

. Vander Plas averaged 24.8 minutes, 7.4 points, and 4.6 rebounds starting most regular season games for the ACC co-champion

Cavaliers The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ). It ...

. During a practice prior to Virginia's quarterfinal game of the ACC tournament vs.

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

he broke his hand and he missed the entirety of the post season. He repeated as Division I Academic All-American of the Year.

Professional career

Riesen Ludwigsburg (2023)

On August 4, 2023, he signed with

MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg Riesen Ludwigsburg ( en, Giants Ludwigsburg), for sponsorship reasons MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, is a professional basketball club that is based in Ludwigsburg, Germany. The club currently plays in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the first tier of ...

of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

BC Šiauliai (2023–present)

On November 30, 2023, Vander Plas signed with

of the

Personal life

He is the son of Ripon High School basketball coach Dean Vander Plas who played with current Virginia head coach

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birth ...

at Wisconsin-Green Bay under Tony's father and then head coach

Dick Bennett Richard A. Bennett (born April 20, 1943) is an American former college basketball coach who is best known for building the Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix men's basketball program into a mid-major power and revitalizing the Wisconsin Badgers basket ...

. Vander Plas is named after the Bennett family.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 1 , , 23.2 , , .407 , , .309 , , .707 , , 5.2 , , 1.5 , , 0.9 , , 0.5 , , 8.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 31 , , 33.0 , , .492 , , .299 , , .593 , , 6.9 , , 2.8 , , 1.0 , , 0.7 , , 15.7 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 25 , , 25 , , 33.8 , , .432 , , .347 , , .764 , , 5.8 , , 3.8 , , 1.4 , , 0.6 , , 12.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 35 , , 35 , , 35.3 , , .457 , , .338 , , .725 , , 6.8 , , 3.1 , , 1.8 , , 0.5 , , 14.3 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 29 , , 15 , , 24.8 , , .412 , , .303 , , .509 , , 4.6 , , 1.4 , , 0.8 , , 0.4 , , 7.4 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 151 , , 107 , , 30.1 , , .447 , , .321 , , .658 , , 5.9 , , 2.5 , , 1.2 , , 0.5 , , 11.8 Source:

References

External links

Virginia Cavaliers bioOhio Bobcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vander Plas, Ben 1998 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from Wisconsin Ohio Bobcats men's basketball players People from Ripon, Wisconsin Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball players