I believe we took him immediately after knowing we weren't getting a big kid who decided on the PAC 12.
Warren Washington was a stretch PF that is mobile and is capable of blocking shots as a weak side defender. I do not think however he was ahead of Carter in pecking order. Carter was recruited for months before we located Washington during the summer.
As far as Carter is concerned, he probably suffered the most from having Myles, Eugene and Doorson in the program and aware of the rotations. I also think he has to improve his passing out of the post.
But i never had a doubt he would contribute here based on the roster he played with that had other players on it and the handful of games online, showed they never ran any plays for their bigs.
He has scored when playing without having plays run for him in the offense, which is the upgrade from Candido, Doorson and similar to Freeman last year.
I wasn't actually surprised by the 3 pointer...he at least has good rotation on his shots. He's just not a leaper which is OK.
There was an open practice during the holidays where Mathis drove baseline for a right handed dunk, that Carter snuffed out at the rim. He let Mathis know he wasn't going to get that dunk on him....ironically Mathis smirked at him essentially saying Carter would get dunked on if it happened again.
I mention the dunk attempt because at that point i knew we had 2 players immediately that were different than years past. One wasn't OK with thinking he would be dunked on by a guard and the guard essentially thinking he will be dunked on if he gets airspace.
It wasn't a hostile exchange but a stark difference that shows up on game days. It was at that point I had seen enough to know a subtle but necessary change from usual RU teams was underway. And the bar on competition was raised. It would not shock me at all to see the nexr target or two in recruiting fit the profiles of Mathis and Carter....players that are going to challenge the people around them to raise their play.
