Matt Carroll

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Matt Carroll, a Notre Dame star with basketball roots in the Pittsburgh area Sunday, February 09, 2003 By Terry Shields, Post-Gazette Assistant Sports Editor SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Grandpa could see this coming. OK, maybe he could have been accused of being a little prejudiced. And yeah, per haps one might have even called him a cockeyed optimist. But more than likely, his experience of more than a half-century as a high schoo l basketball coach who just happens to own the record for the most victories (80 1) in Pennsylvania history serves as a better barometer. Don Graham, the head coach at North Catholic High School from 1948-99, knows a p layer when he sees one. And he got quite an eyeful of his grandson, Matt Carroll , from his earliest days. So it's no surprise to him that Carroll, a 6-foot-6 senior guard at Notre Dame, is being touted as a legitimate candidate for Big East Player of the Year. Or th at he has convinced the talking heads on college basketball telecasts that he is more than "a catch-and-shoot two guard" -- a whole lot more. He leads Notre Dame in scoring at 20.9 points per game, 23.0 in eight conference games. In a 93-92 double-overtime victory against Georgetown last weekend, he b roke the school record for 3-point field goals in a career and added to it Wedne sday night in a 78-72 loss at Seton Hall. He now has 262. He's shooting 45.2 percent from the field (38.5 from 3-point range), 84.7 from t he free-throw line (105 of 124), averages 5.2 rebounds, has 35 assists and 29 st eals. Carroll, whom teammate Jordan Cornette refers to as "the heart and soul of the t eam," has led the Fighting Irish to an 18-4 overall record, a 6-2 Big East mark and the No. 10 ranking in the latest Associated Press poll as they prepare to pl ay host to Pitt today (3:30 p.m., WTAE-TV) in the Joyce Center. It's a rematch of their Jan. 6 meeting when the Panthers defeated the Irish, 72- 55, despite a 32-point performance by Carroll. The traveling call Graham was on hand for that first Pitt game, as he is for many of his grandson's contests. He relishes watching Carroll, a Pittsburgh native, perform. He's not surprised by his success. "Matt had early exposure to the game," Graham recalled. "He used to come up to o ur games all the time when he was little. He and his brother, Patrick [who's now a sophomore playing at St. Joseph's], used to be running around that gym all th e time." Matt earned quite a reputation at St. Alphonsus School in Pine, leading it to co nsecutive Pittsburgh Diocesan Grade School Championships and a state title and a 50-0 record as an eighth-grader I remember that state title game," Graham said. "Matt scored 44 points and dunke d one at the end of the game." No doubt about it, the word on this young Carroll kid was out. He and his buddie s from St. Al's were ready to move on to North Catholic to play for you-know-who . "Yeah, we had it all planned out," said Carroll, who lived in Wexford at the tim e. "Our whole group was going to go to North and play for [Graham]. Then the cal l came that summer." "The call" was for traveling, but it didn't come after a referee's whistle. Carr oll's father, John, a backup quarterback at Penn State in the mid-1970s, was bei ng promoted by his company, Enviro Source, to be vice president for human resour ces. The caveat was that the promotion required that his family move to the Phil adelphia area. Carroll, who said he has always been a Pittsburgh guy at heart -- "I stop every chance I get, whether I'm coming out here or on my way to Horsham" -- said the m ove was disappointing. "Yeah, [moving] was tough," Carroll said. "I have a lot of good friends in Pitts burgh. In fact, Timmy McCabe is still one of my best friends." McCabe was one of four St. Alphonsus teammates who enrolled at North Catholic -- Erik Miller, Dave Remias and Ryan Lacey were the others -- and is now a startin g infielder for the West Virginia University baseball team. "We had it so good," Carroll said. "We had it all planned out." "If Matt had come, we would have had a great team," Graham said. "A lot of other good ones were all set to follow him. We were looking forward to it. I know I c ertainly was." One could almost feel the disappointment dripping from the 76-year-old retiree's voice. Changing his game North Catholic's loss was Hatboro-Horsham's gain. And the prime beneficiary of J ohn Carroll's promotion and transfer (other than John Carroll himself) was anoth er fellow with Western Pennsylvania roots, Walt "Ozzie" Ostrowski, the boys' bas ketball coach at Hatboro-Horsham. Ostrowski, a starter on the fabled Ambridge team that went 27-0 and won the PIAA Class A (large-school) championship in 1967, was delighted to welcome Carroll t o his program. "He had an unbelievable amount of enthusiasm," Ostrowski said. " 'Good Morning A merica' came to our school when Matt was a ninth- grader. He went out and dunked one to start off their program." Ostrowski said Carroll was the starting point guard at Hatboro-Horsham as a 6-3 freshman and progressed from that point. He finished his career with the Hatters as the only player in Pennsylvania history to be selected the Associated Press Big-School (Classes AAAA and AAA) Player of the Year twice. Carroll's success at the college level comes as no shock to his high school coac h. "Not at all," Ostrowski said. "What he's doing now, I thought he was capable of doing any time." Humility aside, Carroll agreed with his former coach. He said he basically playe d the role of the "stand-still shooter" for most of his first three seasons in S outh Bend because that's what he was asked to do. "When you have players like Troy Murphy or Ryan Humphrey [two first-round NBA dr aft picks who played at Notre Dame during Carroll's first three seasons] inside, you have to build your offense around them," Carroll said. "I always thought I had the ability and the talent to play the way I am this season, but I put winni ng before anything else. "This season I've been asked to be more of a scorer so I'm using more parts of m y game. I'm driving to the hoop more, I'm taking the pull-up jumper and I'm gett ing to the foul line more often. I'm looking to score every time I get the ball. " Decision time This isn't the first time Carroll has been asked to have a good transition game at Notre Dame. Coming out of Hatboro-Horsham, he was heavily recruited and originally considere d two of the Division I programs back in his old hometown. "I knew Darelle [Porter, then Duquesne's coach] pretty well and I was impressed with what they were doing at Pitt. But, as it turned out, neither of those were among my final five choices. "I narrowed it down to North Carolina State because of the Millers [Sean, an ass istant coach, and Archie, a player a couple of years ahead of him, both of whom played at Blackhawk], Wake Forest, Villanova, Penn State and Notre Dame. "I had a great support group with my family and Coach Ozzie and I got a lot of g ood advice." Some of that advice came from his uncle Don, one of Coach Graham's sons and the brother of his mom, Maureen. He told his nephew to "pick a school for the school itself and not because of the coach." Coaches come and go, he said, but the sch ool will always be there. His words became prophetic even before Carroll enrolled. He chose Notre Dame and John MacLeod, a veteran coach who had logged many seasons in the NBA before he came to the Golden Dome. But MacLeod was fired after the 1998-99 season -- while Carroll was finishing hi s senior year in high school -- and was replaced by Matt Doherty, a former North Carolina standout who was Roy Williams' top assistant at Kansas. "It was kind of confusing and it left you up in the air, but Doherty contacted m e right after he got the job and I loved everything about [Notre Dame]," so he s tuck with his original choice. Doherty, in his first year as a head coach, brought enthusiasm and a renewed vig or to the program. He led the Irish to a 22-15 record and a postseason drive to the NIT championship game, a 71-61 loss to Wake Forest. It appeared that Doherty had something building. But in July of 2000, Bill Guthr idge unexpectedly resigned at North Carolina and after several of the likely can didates to succeed him declined the job, Doherty became the anointed one at Chap el Hill. Enter Mike Brey, Delaware's coach and a longtime Duke assistant. "We were very fortunate to have a guy like Mike Brey come in," Carroll said. "He had a totally different style. I have no complaints with Doherty, but I really fit well with Coach Brey. We have similar personalities. "He treats you like a man. We have a lot of freedom -- no curfews or anything li ke that. He expects you to make mature decisions." And Brey hasn't done a bad job of coaching. He has returned Notre Dame to the ba sketball map with two 20-win seasons and two NCAA tournament bids, the first tim e since the Digger Phelps era ended(1990). Another 20-win season and a third NCAA bid in a row appear imminent. Leadership role Carroll caught Brey's attention right away. In fact, after the new coach met the team for the first time, he approached Carroll, a sophomore-to-be, and told him "you'll be the most important guy here." Brey said Carroll looked at him quizzically, then he explained to him: "You've b een here a year but you'll have three seasons with me. I'm counting on you to be my continuity guy. He's done that and then some. "Matt is such a great kid. I know it sounds corny, but he's the kind of kid you want your daughter to bring home. He calms me down. He's the only one on the tea m who can mess with me." Brey said Carroll's value to the team was evident in last weekend's double-overt ime victory against Georgetown. "Matt Carroll set the tone -- how he talked to the guys in the huddle. He kept u sing last year's [four-overtime Irish victory against Georgetown] as a reference point. We want to hang another [Big East] banner and Matt reinforces that every day." Before he finishes his Notre Dame career, Carroll will rank among the elite in t he Irish record book. He has shown steady improvement each season, averaging 9.8 ppg as a freshman, followed by seasons of 12.4 and 14.1. He ranks as the 10th a ll-time leading career scorer with 1,645 points and could reach No. 6 before the season ends, placing just behind his former teammate, Murphy (2,011). A marketing major, Carroll plans to put an office job on hold for some time. "It's been my dream to play in the NBA," he said. "I'm just going to wait and se e how the rest of the season goes and then see how the [NBA] workouts go." If he doesn't make it in the NBA, he said he'd probably give professional ball i n Europe a try, "as long as my body is still together in one piece, I'll give it a shot." At least one scouting expert thinks Carroll has a shot to make it in the NBA. "He's been on everybody's radar," said Ryan Blake, assistant director of NBA Sco uting. "We've seen him many times. A guy with his size, shooting ability and com petitiveness 3/4 teams have an interest in that. He's a hard worker, too. He cou ld be an asset to a team." Blake declined to predict when or if Carroll would be drafted. He said a lot could also depend on how well Carroll plays at the NBA workout at Portsmouth, Va., for college seniors only. It's scheduled for April 9-12. He said the improvement Carroll has displayed this season can do nothing but hel p his stock rise. "Any positive variety to your game that you can add helps." But for now, Matt Carroll's focus is simply leading Notre Dame back to the NCAA tournament. His grandfather is already figuring on it. -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.csie.ntu.edu.tw) ◆ From: 218.167.195.231