Devin Carter's Endless Energy Was On Display (Yet Again) Against Creighton
Four months ago, there were a number of questions facing Ed Cooley’s Friars after losing five starters from a 27-win team. Key among them was how they could ever replace the defensive prowess of graduate transfer Justin Minaya?
The 6’6 Minaya came to Providence amid little fanfare after putting up steady, but certainly not spectacular, numbers for a South Carolina program that had taken a step back following its Final Four berth in 2017.
The box score never fully told the Justin Minaya story, however.
The lefty was a linchpin in Providence, with the capability of not only guarding wings and fours, but taking an opponent’s best player completely out of the game. Minaya’s best work may have come in his final appearance in black and white in the Sweet 16 against Kansas, when he played a key role in limiting All American Ochai Agbaji to just five points.
Of all the questions Providence had to answer heading into the 2022-23 season, the Minaya one seemed the simplest to answer: Don’t worry about replicating what PC had in him because history wasn’t going to repeat itself.
Minaya spent four years in the SEC honing his craft against elite wing athletes and next level bigs. Perhaps Providence would make up for his loss with additional rim protection, but it didn’t seem realistic to think that they could find an individual defender that had anywhere near the impact of Minaya.
Yet, somehow here we are in mid-February, and Providence has struck defensive gold once again. Once again, this help came via a South Carolina transfer.
Devin Carter has been an absolute revelation in his first year at PC.
“Everybody talks about all these different players around the country defensively,” Ed Cooley said following Providence’s exhilarating 94-86 double overtime victory over #18 Creighton on Tuesday night. “I wouldn’t take one player in America defensively — not one — (over Carter).”
“Some of you have got to open your damn eyes and see what’s to my right (at the postgame podium) defensively. We put him on everybody,” Cooley continued. “This young man here, he’s a stud defensively. I hope everybody wakes up and understands that.”
Cooley’s pleas were oh-so similar to a press conference from a year ago, when he shared how he couldn’t believe that the rest of the country was missing the boat on Minaya’s defensive ability.
Cooley’s ire may have been directed toward those who determine the finalists for the Naismith Defensive Player Of The Year Watch List — a 15-player group that includes Big East players like Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner and Connecticut’s Andre Jackson. Carter was nowhere to be found when the list was released.
While Minaya starred in his stopper role thanks to his frame, guile, and instincts, Carter plays with ferocious energy and terrific lateral quickness, while making highlight reel plays on a nightly basis.
Minaya brought calm and maturity.
Carter is pure electricity.
There’s seemingly no such thing as a 50/50 ball with Carter on the floor. He comes up with everything within a ten foot radius.
While the rest of the country is still getting caught up on Carter’s defensive excellence, with more nights like Tuesday his total game will be difficult to ignore any longer.
Playing in front of his father (long-time NBA guard Anthony Carter) on Tuesday, Devin was outstanding from beginning to end in a critical win over a Bluejays team riding an eight-game winning streak coming in.
The Friar sophomore scored a game-high 25 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and was still flying around the court on Providence’s final defensive possession of double overtime after playing 45 minutes at a breakneck pace.
What didn’t Carter do on Tuesday?
He scored 10 points in the game’s first seven minutes (including a pair of 3-pointers) to help PC keep pace with a Creighton team that came out hot.
Carter kicked off the second half with a reverse layup around Kalkbrenner, then buried his third three of the game on the ensuing possession to give the Friars the lead.
With just over five minutes to go in the second half, Carter made an outstanding defensive play — coming down to double team Kalkbrenner, but recovering back to the 3-point line in time to come up with a steal that resulted in a tricky layup on the other end to snap a 67-67 tie.
He nearly blew the roof off the AMP when he outraced three Creighton players to snag the opening jump and soar in for a dunk to kick off the first overtime session.
Late in the game, Providence had no answer for Creighton point guard Ryan Nembhard, whose speed has to be seen in person to truly appreciate. Nembard had the ball with a chance to win it in the closing seconds of OT, but Carter swatted his shot at the horn to keep the Friars alive.
In the second overtime, Carter put the finishing touches on the visiting Jays — first by coming up with a steal and taking the ball the other way for a traditional three-point play, and then going high for a rebound with just over three minutes left.
Providence got big time efforts up and down the roster. Bryce Hopkins played the full 50 minutes and finished with 20 points and nine boards. Noah Locke hit all sorts of big shots on his way to 20 points of his own, while Ed Croswell gave up no ground to Kalkbrenner in the paint, and freshman Jayden Pierre hit a pair of big jumpers.
Carter was the tone-setter in this one, however, and he’s a huge reason why Providence is now 19-7 on the season and 11-4 in Big East play.
His numbers in Big East games stand for themselves: He is 10th in the league in scoring (15.2 ppg), top 20 in rebounds (5.4), top 15 in assists (3.3), fifth in steals (1.9), and sixth in blocked shots (1.5).
Providence’s Net Rating (point differential over 100 possessions) with Carter on the floor is a +21.1 this season. Second on the team is Croswell at +10.2. Carter’s Net Rating ranks in the 96th percentile in the country. He also ranks in the 89th percentile nationally in steal percentage (3.2%) and 98th in block percentage (3.6%), according to College Basketball Analytics.
The numbers are impressive, but with Carter the eye test was more than enough on Tuesday.
Playing with endless energy, Devin Carter was both the best, and most electric, player on the court in a game played at an elite level.
He is also an elite finisher at the rim. Money!