Tenured coach brings little change

By: Juan López

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 12:52 AM

“Coach (Fox), he would yell at you until you got something right … Coach (David) Carter, he’s real different. He’ll pull you to the side and tell you what’s going on … He gives us great confidence because he’s a player’s coach and he gives us more freedom.” — Nevada point guard Armon Johnson

Click to enlarge. Photo by Brian Bolton / Nevada Sagebrush.

David Carter started the 2009-10 men’s basketball season with a new title, but he doesn’t feel too different.

Carter, who was hired as the team’s head coach earlier this year, said that one of the biggest changes is that his office in Legacy Hall has moved a few feet.

As for the on-the-court stuff, he said it hasn’t been too difficult of a transition.

“It’s not all too different,” said Carter, who served as a Wolf Pack assistant coach from 1999-2004 and associate head coach from 2004-09. “I’ve been here for 10 years so I’ve pretty much adapted the same philosophy Coach (Mark) Fox and Coach (Trent) Johnson had.”

Carter said he has picked up a few things from Fox (head coach at the University of Georgia) and Johnson (head coach at Louisiana State University), two former Nevada head coaches. He said he and Fox keep in touch often through e-mails and text messages.

And while Carter admitted he seeks and takes advice from Fox, he hasn’t let Fox’s coaching style change his. Carter won’t be found stomping on the floor and throwing his jacket down the bench as Fox was known for doing.

“Coach Fox, he would yell at you until you got something right,” Wolf Pack junior point guard Armon Johnson said. “It was all for the better, but he was still yelling. Coach Carter, he’s real different. He’ll pull you to the side and tell you what’s going on.

“(The hiring of Carter) feels like a blessing in disguise. He gives us great confidence because he’s a player’s coach and he gives us more freedom.”

One of Carter’s assistants, Dennis Gates, said Carter, who played point guard at St. Mary’s College from 1984-1989, knows how to reach players. And a lot of times, it doesn’t involve raising his voice.
“When it comes down to it, every coach can yell, but is it the best way you can to get the best out of that player?” said Gates, who is in his first year with the Wolf Pack. “Coach (Carter) has a very unique way of getting the best out of the guys by communicating well. He gets his point across very clearly.”

Aside from the change in coaching style, Carter has implemented a more fast-paced offensive scheme. It’s already working, as evidenced by Nevada’s first game of the season on Friday, in which it shot 72 percent from the field in the first half and made eight of its 20 three-point attempts.

Assistant coach Keith Brown said the offensive methods Carter has brought in are not only more exciting for the fans, but also for the players.

“That’s one thing: The guys like scoring a lot of points so anytime you say up-tempo, the guys like that,” Brown said. “We get a chance to get out, run and get easy buckets — you can’t ask for more than that.”

Johnson is one of the players who is enjoying Carter’s pace the most.

“It’s like a 360 (degree) turn from last year,” he said. “I’ve never been the type of player to always come up and set up an offense. When I can just play, that’s when I do my best. Playing up and down the court … that’s what I like to do.”

So while not much has changed for Carter in this season from his previous seasons with the Wolf Pack, there has been a major overhaul from the players’ point of view: They have a new head coach, he’s not as in-your-face as the old one and they run in games a lot more.

Anything else?

“(Carter’s) thinking about growing out his hair a little bit,” Johnson joked.

Juan López can be reached at jlopez@nevadasagebrush.com.