Carter knew he would come to ND
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Sports Writer
When Russell Carter was young, his father, a former football player, loved watching the Irish football team play on Saturdays. And as Carter grew up, he longed for the day when he could wear a Notre Dame jersey.
But while his vision of running out of the Notre Dame Stadium tunnel disappeared long ago, his dream of wearing an Irish uniform will become a reality when he jogs onto the Joyce Center court this fall for the basketball team.
"It's kind of weird," Carter said. "When I was little, I always thought I was going to Notre Dame for football. Now, I'm going to be playing basketball."
Following a weekend visit to Notre Dame, the 6-foot-4, 190-pound high school senior guard faxed his official letter of intent Monday to the Irish basketball office, becoming the third member of Notre Dame's incoming freshman class.
Associate head coach Sean Kearney compared Carter to senior-to-be Torrian Jones, citing Carter's combination of athleticism and shooting range. Carter could easily step in as a freshman next season and contribute, Kearney said, by helping to fill the void vacated by graduating guard Matt Carroll.
"It's a great investment for us," Kearney said. "He's got a very good athletic body, yet can shoot the ball very well. He's a guy at that wing position who can add some depth for us."
Offseason knee surgery largely kept Carter off the recruiting radar during evaluation periods in the summer and fall, when Colin Falls and Omari Israel signed with Notre Dame. Only a handful of colleges showed any interest in Carter, who has a 3.8 GPA and an 1130 SAT score and was determined to pick a school based on its academic reputation.
In February, Carter's coach at Paulsboro High, Mike Ricci, contacted the Notre Dame coaching staff trying to find a high-caliber school interested in his star senior. Although Notre Dame was one of the last schools to show interest in Carter — trailing schools like Penn, Rutgers and West Virginia — the Irish coaches began attending his games and started heavily recruiting him soon after.
Carter knew he would pick Notre Dame over William and Mary, the other finalist in the chase for Carter, even before he set foot on campus last weekend. Playing pickup games with members of the Irish team — "It didn't feel awkward, and I felt like I was one of the guys," he said — and attending the Blue-Gold game only solidified his decision.
"I knew where I was going, I just didn't want to tell. I wanted you guys to sweat," Carter said. "There had to be some suspense when I was coming up there this weekend."
The Philadelphia Inquirer's South Jersey boys player of the year, Carter averaged 30 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists during his senior season. Neither Carter nor the Irish coaching staff said his knee would hamper his play.
Another factor in Carter's decision was the approach of the William and Mary coaching staff. He listened to appeals from head coach Rick Boyages who promised Carter William and Mary was the best fit, and no other college could offer what William and Mary could.
"The next day, he left," Carter said of Boyages' decision to take an associate coaching position at Ohio State. "That put things in perspective there."
Carter's addition to the Notre Dame roster this fall means the Irish will have 11 scholarship players on the roster in the fall, two below the NCAA maximum. The Irish could potentially add former Arizona forward Dennis Latimore, a transfer with two years of college eligibility remaining.
Although the rest of the Irish — including Falls and Israel — will arrive on campus in mid-June to begin practicing together, Carter isn't scheduled to graduate from high school until late in the summer. However, he said he hopes to be practicing with the team by July 1.
"The bottom line is that I want to play, but if I'm not starting, I'm going to come off the bench to be a spark," Carter said. "I'm going to be in there, and when I'm on the floor, I'm going to make an impact."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, April 29, 2003
