Ben Davidson, a 6-foot-3 Bulldog from St. Clair, finished his basketball career with the team’s first trip to the Elite Eight since 2018.
High School Recruitment
Davidson was a standout playing at St. Clair High School. As a senior, he averaged 19 points and four assists per game. He was a two-time MAC Gold MVP, Blue Water All-Area choice and was selected as one of the top 50 players in Michigan by Prep Hoops and Inside Prep Sports. Those honors also made Davidson the ninth-best shooting guard in the state.
Being recruited out of high school, Davidson had gotten offers from multiple DII schools, and only a few DI schools looked at him. Ferris State offered him a scholarship when he was a junior. By the time he was a senior, Ferris had won a national championship. Davidson knew he made the right decision to commit to the Bulldogs because he wanted to win.
Recruited by head coach Andy Bronkema and coach Jim Lake, Davidson started his career at Ferris as part of the first recruiting class to come in after the national championship in 2018.
Addis Habtewold, who is like an older brother to Davidson, reflected on the hope he carried for Davidson to play college ball.
“I always had big hopes for Ben playing basketball in college,” Habtewold said. “I think back when he was a kid he used to play my Xbox, [which led to] his food all over my controller. We used to play in the driveway and now I look up to talk to him.”
Davidson’s college career makes those messy controllers worth it.
College Career
Redshirting his first year, Davidson went from the number one option on his team to the last one, and he knew it.
“The difference between high school and college [is that] you were kind of able to coast a little bit like in practice in high school,” Davidson said. “But you come to college and there was zero question I was the last guy on the team. If everyone got a chance to play the game, I would be the last person to play.”
Still, Davidson knew he had to work hard to see more minutes in the following years. He made his primary focus to get in shape. Davidson would spend time getting extra weightlifting sessions to get his body ready to handle college play while also finding ways to improve his shot selection to have better shot percentages and become a better defender.
The extra work paid off for Davidson, as each year passed, he became a more efficient player.
In the 2019-20 season, Davidson played his first season for Ferris after his redshirt season, where he averaged 2.3 points per game in 13 games played on seven minutes per game. It was not until the 2020-21 season he broke out with 8.4 points per game in 19 games played and four games and started averaging 21.1 minutes per game. In the 2021-22 season, he averaged 11.9 points per game in 31 games off the bench.
During his final two seasons, he started every game for the Bulldogs. In the 2022-23 season, he averaged 13 points per game in 33 games with 27.9 minutes per game. In his final season, he appeared in 36 games, averaging 26.9 minutes per game and 13.7 points per game. He also played a huge role in getting the Bulldogs their sixth GLIAC championship and Elite Eight appearance in the NCAA DII Tournament, both for the first time since 2018 when Davidson was recruited to continue the Bulldog’s success.
Something that seemed to have eluded him had finally happened, and he said accomplishing that felt right, and it was an “awesome feeling” for him in his final season.
Head Coach Andy Bronkema is proud of who Davidson has become as a player and a person.
“He represents everything that you want a player to represent when it comes to your program,” Bronkema said. “It didn’t always come easy. He got through a lot of hard times and challenging times and came out on top, so he brought our program back to the Elite Eight, and he did it with high character hard work, and just the old-school qualities that you want out of young men, so pretty cool story. He did it the right way.”
Davidson graduated in the spring of 2023 with an education degree. As a student-athlete, he had to navigate his time between his family, personal time, being a student and an athlete. But education was important for him, as his parents were teachers. Now, he will teach future generations.
After College
Davidson will now be looking to start his career after basketball. Inspired by his parents, Jon Davidson and Diane Trout-Davidson, he chose to pursue a teaching career.
“When I came to college, I really didn’t know what to do,” Davidson said. “You had to sign up for something obviously, and I signed up to be a teacher because that’s all I know. I fell in love with it right away. That definitely had a huge impact with both my parents being teachers.”
Back at home now, Davidson is searching for a teaching job in the Blue Water area. Still wanting to be connected to basketball, he will be helping coach at his former high school.
Davidson says he will always remember his time as a Bulldog with all the memories made with his best friends and coaches.
CE – AM