Devin Carter was faced with a choice last spring. At least, it appeared that way.
Not only after John Brady's eight-year run as the men's basketball coach at Arkansas State University had come to a close last March, a new coach was on his way to Jonesboro.
But Carter didn't. In fact, he said this week, he said he never gave the option much thought.
"I just felt my best choice was to stay and still try to win," Carter said. "Definitely a roll of the dice. But it worked out well."
It's difficult to argue.
Carter plays his final two regular-season home games -- tonight against Georgia Southern and Monday against Georgia State -- before ASU closes the Sun Belt schedule on the road.
Carter leads ASU in points (16.4 per game) and three-pointers (85) and has served as a focal point for a team that tonight can record a 20-victory season for the first time since 1997-1998.
The Red Wolves are still in contention for a regular-season Sun Belt title and, at the very least, are expected to enter next month's Sun Belt tournament with a first-round bye after not even qualifying for it last year.
"I just feel like, last year, everybody was just not on the same page," Carter said. "But this year, everybody is on the same page and has just one goal, and that's to win a championship."
Carter was known as a scorer, but his defense has improved so much that McCasland and staff don't have to make adjustments when deciding on matchups.
"It's not like he shied away from being a great defender," McCasland said. "He looked at it square in the face and said 'I'm not very good. I need to get better.' And you can work with that."
Carter's attitude has impressed McCasland since the first time they met when Carter expressed his desire for team success.
The Red Wolves went 11-18 in 2014-2015, the season Carter sat out after transferring from Kent State.
Carter led the team in points and minutes last season, but ASU's 10-20 finish was its lowest victory total in two decades and included a nine-game losing streak to end the season.
Carter wanted to go out a winner.
"I genuinely saw sincerity in that," McCasland said. "That's all I ever talked about, so it's not like I gave him another avenue. But, I saw him genuinely wanting that. Because, his journey is pretty wild."
Carter was an all-conference player at Champaign (Ill.) Centennial High, where his older brother, Anthony Figueroa, was an assistant coach. But Carter and Figueroa said there was not one offer from a Division I or Division II school.
Why?
"I have no idea," Carter said this week.
Figueroa, now a head coach at Parkland College in Champaign, said some coaches thought Carter was an academic risk, and others didn't return phone calls at all. Then, workouts after his senior year in high school turned him into a better prospect than he was during his senior season.
"He turned himself from a Division II player to a mid-major player in months, just by doing that work," Figueroa said.
Carter ended up at Lake Land Community College in Mattoon, about an hour south of Champaign, and averaged 17.5 points per game before going to Kent State.
He transferred to ASU after getting little playing time at Kent State, and Figueroa said Carter's next move was predicated on the slights form high school.
"I'll put it like this: A lot of dudes missed the boat," he said. "I didn't let him forget that those guys overlooked him."
Carter might draw some of his motivation from slights in the past, but now he's focused on current events like tonight's game against Georgia Southern, which is half-game back of ASU for second place in the Sun Belt standings. It makes him glad he stuck around.
"No matter what coach we got, they were going to want to win right off the bat," he said. "Because, the reputation wasn't exactly great here. So, that's what I had in the back of my head the whole time and I just wanted to be a part of that."
ASU men vs.
Georgia Southern
WHEN 7 p.m. WHERE Convocation Center, Jonesboro RECORDS Arkansas State 19-8, 10-4 Sun Belt; Georgia Southern 17-10, 10-5 RADIO KFIN-FM, 107.9, in Jonesboro INTERNET ESPN3.com TICKETS $25 (adults, lower level), $22 (seniors, lower level), $15 (youth, lower level) $10 (adults and seniors, upper level), $8 (youth, upper level)
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
ARKANSAS STATE POS. NAME, HT, YR PPG RPG G Donte Thomas, 6-4, Sr. 8.5 4.2 G Rashad Lindsey, 5-11, Jr. 10.7 3.1 G Devin Carter, 6-4, Sr. 16.4 3.6 G C.J. Foster, 6-2, Jr. 5.0 2.5 F Jamiah Simmons, 6-4, Fr. 6.2 4.7 COACH Grant McCasland (19-8 in first season at ASU, 217-51 in eighth season overall)
GEORGIA SOUTHERN POS. NAME, HT, YR PPG RPG G Mike Hughes, 6-3, Jr. 11.0 3.8 G Ike Smith, 6-4, So. 19.8 5.0 G Tookie Brown, 5-11, So. 18.1 3.5 F B.J. Gladden, Jr. 6.0 4.3 F Coye Simmons, 6-8, Jr. 2.6 4.8 COACH Mark Byington (68-55 in fourth season at Georgia Southern, 75-59 in fifth season overall)
TEAM COMPARISON
ASU GS 73.9 Points for 77.9 68.3 Points against 73.9 +2.7 Rebound margin -4.1 +0.1 Turnover margin +2.1 47.1 FG PCT. 44.7 39.3 3-PT. PCT. 37.0 63.9 FT PCT. 66.6
— Troy Schulte
Sun Belt men’s standings
CONF. ALL Texas-Arlington ......................11-3 21-6
Arkansas State ................ 10-4 19-8
Georgia State..........................10-5 17-10 Georgia Southern ...................10-5 17-11 Coastal Carolina ......................9-6 14-14 Texas State ..............................8-6 15-11 Troy..........................................8-6 16-12 Louisiana-Lafayette .................6-8 16-11 South Alabama ........................6-8 13-14
UALR............................ 4-10 13-14
Appalachian State ..................3-12 8-18 Louisiana-Monroe..................1-13 7-20 TODAY’S GAMES — All times Central La.-Monroe at Appalachian St., 2:30 p.m. La.-Lafayette at Coastal Carolina, 3:30 p.m. South Alabama at Texas-Arlington, 4:30 p.m. Troy at Texas State, 4:30 p.m.
Georgia State at UALR, 6 p.m. Georgia Southern at Arkansas State, 7 p.m.
Sports on 02/25/2017