Friar Basketball Newsletter: How Devin Carter is having an even bigger season than you think... PLUS a so-so effort versus DePaul, a Bryce Hopkins return, highlights, and more
With five games left in the regular season, it’s time to put some perspective around just how stellar Devin Carter has been since conference play began.
No Big East roster dealt with a bigger setback than when Providence lost Bryce Hopkins in the third game of conference play on Jan. 3. The Friars were 2-0 in the Big East at the time, including a win over a top ten team in Marquette, and ranked 23rd in the country.
With a roster that had already had its depth chipped away at dating back to last spring, few were completely taken aback after Providence lost its first four games without Hopkins. It was a season that was teetering on becoming a lost one until Carter and Josh Oduro raised their games to levels very few in the league expected prior to the start of the season.
This was a Providence team picked to finish seventh by the league’s coaches before the loss of Hopkins, one of two unanimous 1st Team All Big East selections a season ago.
In fairness to those coaches, no one saw this type of explosion coming from Devin Carter in his junior year.
Through 15 conference games, Carter is averaging 21.7 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.9 steals, and shooting .427 from beyond the 3-point arc and .495 from the field.
To put that into perspective, not one player has averaged at least 20 points and eight rebounds in Big East games since Basketball Reference began tracking conference stats in 2011. If anyone had, you certainly wouldn’t expect it to be a 6’3 guard — or the guy who is doing so while also doubling as perhaps the best defensive guard in the country.
An Honorable Mention All Big East choice last season, Carter likely won’t win the league’s Most Improved Player award, but his leap this season has been sensational. His 3-point shooting jumped from 32% a season ago to nearly 43% in 15 conference games, while he shot just under 43% from the field overall versus a smidge under 50% as a junior.
Carter came into this year expected to be Robin to Hopkins’ Batman, but through 15 games he has as legitimate of a claim as anyone to the Big East Player of the Year award.
On Saturday versus DePaul, Carter was elite: 31 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, a steal, a block, 10-14 shooting from the field, and 7-10 beyond the arc.
In conference games, Carter ranks first in scoring, third in rebounds, 12th in field goal percentage (one of a few guards on the list), 11th in assists, fourth in steals, eighth in 3-point percentage, third in 3-pointers made, and fifth in minutes played. He’s doing all of this while defending as if his life depended on it.
Of course, at this time a year ago Hopkins was seen as a viable POY candidate before Providence’s season fell apart late. The Friars have five games left and sit as squarely on the bubble as they possibly could this year. If Carter has any shot at being the first Friar since Kris Dunn in 2016 to be named the league’s best player, he will most likely have to lead this team back to the NCAA Tournament.
The Friars play one of their biggest games of the season this week. Providence desperately needs a road victory for its NCAA Tournament resume, and will hope to pick one up on Wednesday when they take on a Xavier team with a very good backcourt.
Carter will be asked to slow the Big East’s second-leading scorer in Quincy Olivari, and will swap onto another top ten scorer in Desmond Claude, which he was forced to do when the two teams met in January after Claude came out of the gate sizzling. Olivari was limited to 3-10 shooting the last time these two teams met, but Claude’s 19-point first half helped erase a double-digit first-half Friar lead — and paved the way for X to outscore PC 44-25 after halftime.
Carter will have his hands full, but it seems as though no burden has been too great for him in a junior season that ranks up there individually with any Dunn or Bryce Cotton put up during their outstanding careers in Providence.
More from Friar Basketball:
Yes, Providence picked up a win over DePaul on Saturday, but their approach to the game was lacking focus and attention to detail. Kim English was not impressed.
Josh Oduro has scored 55 points in two games since becoming a father. Here he is going for 27, on 10-12 shooting, versus DePaul and scoring 28 against St. John’s.
Bryce Hopkins met with the local media on Friday, and shared significant news: he is planning on returning to school and playing for Providence once his torn ACL is rehabilitated.
Bill Ricci’s latest on the Friars digs into English’s thoughts on player and team development, the difficulty of picking up road wins in the Big East, PC’s chances of getting to 20 wins, and more.
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