The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

West Virginia point guard Jevon Carter set the career steals record in Mountaineer hoops history Thursday night. The record-breaking steal came at the tail end of the first half of WVU’s easy 33-point win over NJIT.

With Carter now the best in program history at taking the ball away from the competition, and with at least 25 games left in his career, it’s a good time to look back at his defensive numbers through the last three-plus years.

Carter’s first steal came in his first career game against Monmouth on Nov. 14, 2014.

His first multi-steal game came two games later against George Mason when he collected a trio of takeaways.  The point guard collected the same number of steals in his next game against Boston College. That season also included his first six-steal game, which occurred on Jan. 3, 2015 against TCU.

Just over a year later, Carter came up with his 100th career takeaway, though it came in a two-point loss on the road against No. 2 Oklahoma.

During his junior year, the point guard went 18-consecutive games of collecting a steal in a two-month span. He gathered 42 steals through that stretch of competition, nearly half of his season total.

It was during that stretch that Carter earned his 200th career takeaway. However, that milestone also came in a losing effort by the Mountaineers – an overtime loss on the road against No. 3 Kansas.

Carter ended his third year on Bob Huggins’ squad with 218 steals, well within striking distance of the school mark.

He currently sits at 254 career takeaways, four more than mark previously set by Greg Jones.

 

14-15  (35gms) 15-16  (35gms) 16-17    (37gms) 17-18      (8gms) Career  (115gms)
Steals / gm 1.9 1.7 2.5 4.5 2.21
Total # Steals 67 59 92 36 254
Multi-steal gms 16 18 25 8 67
0-steal gms 8 8 3 0 19
4+ steal gms 6 4 10 6 26
Season High 6 x 2 5 x 2 6 x 2 9

 

Here are some other numbers on his steals:

  • Carter’s 67 career multi-steal games means he’s collected at least two takeaways in over half (58 percent) of the games he’s played in.
  • On the opposite end of the spectrum, he’s failed to create a takeaway in just 16 percent of games.
  • More impressively, Carter’s 26 games of four-plus steals means he’s accomplished the feat in 22.6 percent of contests he’s played in.
  • If Carter keeps up his current pace of 4.4 steals per game this season, he will finish with 362 career steals, which would place him fifth all-time in NCAA Division I history.
  • If he continues playing at his 2.21 steals per game mark that he’s had over his career, he’ll finish with 309 takeaways.

 

Carter will go for career steals Nos. 255 and beyond Tuesday at home against No. 18 Virginia.