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Carlson is the key point for men
 Media Credit: Blair Schlichte SCSU junior point guard Alex Carlson is the heart and soul of the men’s basketball team. Last season he broke fingers in his left hand and the Huskies went only 6-4 without him. With him, they went 15-3.
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To qualify as intelligent on the basketball court means you have to know where to be on the court at every moment of the game.
To be labeled as gifted in basketball, you have know where everyone has to be. SCSU point guard Alex Carlson definitely qualifies as gifted. At the start of his junior season, Carlson is irrefutably the men’s basketball team’s heart and soul. With immense passing ability and an ample jump shot, this six-foot-two 190-pound backcourt specialist is the main reason SCSU has posted back-to-back 20-win seasons.
Last season, Carlson and the Huskies were 9-0 and walking on air heading into their final non-conference game against the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse on Dec. 28. Disaster struck when he broke fingers in his left hand during the game. The Huskies would lose Carlson for six weeks and go 6-4 without him in the lineup, whereas they were 15-3 with him. When Carlson returned it was a big boost, but seemed out of whack.
“The injury threw a wrench into things. You get used to certain rotations and you get used to playing with people in certain situations. It didn’t screw things up, it was just different,” Carlson said.
Going 15-3 with someone in the lineup isn’t bad, but the Huskies finish at 21-7 and bowing out early in the NCC tournament in addition to not making the NCAA tournament, was a huge disappointment. It was especially disheartening coming off the year before where SCSU made the Final Eight in the NCAA Regionals.
“Last season was disappointing,” Carlson said bluntly. “At the end of the season we had to rely on someone else to win for us to get into the regional tournament, which is never the way you want to do it. You want to get in it on your own. It was disappointing that we had to rely on somebody else and, unfortunately, it didn’t happen. But those are the chances you’re going to have to take when you don’t get it done yourself.”
Despite all of the frustration, Carlson still had a solid statistical year in 2001-02. He averaged 10.8 points per game and dished out a team-leading 89 assists (5.0 per game). His scoring was up from his freshman campaign of 9.2 ppg, but his assist total was down from 166 in 2000-01. His immediate success at SCSU as a freshman (started 22 games) was just another tribute to Carlson.
The point guard is already climbing up several men’s basketball record charts. He’s at No. 11 in two categories: three-point field goals made at 84 and assists at 255. He also appears on the steals list with 87 in his career to earn him a spot at No. 16. This kind of chart-climbing will only continue this season if Carlson finds a way to stay healthy. His teammate Forrest Witt knows just how valuable his point guard is.
“He’s the leader of our team,” Witt said of Carlson. “He’s a great defender and does all the little things you don’t usually see in the stats. He does a lot of things that people in the stands don’t always see either, but everyone on our team knows what he means to us.”
His head coach, Kevin Schlagel, echoed those sentiments.
“Alex brings a lot of unique qualities to a team,” Schlagel said. “One, he’s a very physical point guard. Two, he’s got tremendous leadership skills. He understands the game really well and he gets people to where they’re supposed to be, which is so much of what we try to do within the schemes that we run. He’s a very valuable player in the sense that he plays all areas of the game very well.”
SCSU’s strong backcourt of Carlson, Witt and Nate Miller, are the reason SCSU is favored to place fourth in the NCC this season. A possible three-guard set in the lineup at times has the junior excited.
“It’s nice to have that option,” he said. “We have great ball-handlers in the backcourt. With Nate, Forrest and I it’s like we have three point guards out there. At the end of a game, that’s a nice lineup to have for ball-handling, free throw shooting situations or if you need to break a press.”
“ We’re going to try and push the ball more and take advantage of our quickness since we’re not going to be bigger than a lot of teams, but hopefully we can get an up-tempo game going and that’ll help open the post. If we can get some easy transition baskets, and they’re focusing on the perimeter, that’ll open it up too.”
Carlson, a native of Litchfield, Minn., was a high school phenom at Litchfield High School. He participated in tennis and football, besides basketball. However, basketball was his forte. He started playing varsity in eighth grade while playing for his father, John. The Dragons became a force in Minnesota high school basketball thanks to this father and son duo.
They finally won a state basketball championship in 2000 when Alex was a senior. He was named State AA Player of the Year in 2000, was one of five Mr. Basketball Finalists and was named to All-Conference and All-State teams. His younger brother, John Jr., played on the same state championship team in 2000 as a freshman. The younger sibling was also a sought-after athlete and just recently declared that he’s going to Notre Dame to play football for Tyrone Willingham on a full-ride scholarship.
One can see that there’s athleticism running through the Carlson family veins. John Sr. also played and coached for the SCSU men’s basketball team. Carlson said he never felt any pressure, even though he came from a town like Litchfield.
“It’s a nice small town and was a great place to grow up,” he said. “I suppose you could say there was pressure on me, but I never felt it.”
While coming from a small town keeps him humble, one can see the desire and passion Carlson brings to the court each and every night. SCSU’s No. 4 no doubt will bring those same characteristics to the court this season as he hopes to lead the Huskies back to the promise land of the NCAA tournament.
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