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

BLOG: Jevon Carter continues to climb the WVU ranks

West Virginia point guard Jevon Carter is off to a great start to the season, not only leading the Mountaineers in multiple statistical categories but being near the top of the Big 12 in those categories, as well.

Carter, in his final season playing for Bob Huggins before turning his attention to the next level, recently took over as the all-time leader in steals in West Virginia history.

Although Carter likely won’t top the WVU record books in any other statistic, he will finish his career as one of the best guards to ever put on the Mountaineer uniform, statistically.

With the senior point guard helping lead the way, West Virginia is atop the Big 12 in five categories, including steals, rebounds, and offensive rebounds. When looking at the conference, Carter is fifth in Big 12 history in steals (256) all-time. This season, he’s second in scoring (19.4 ppg), fifth in free throw percentage (89.8 percent) and fifth in assists (60).

Changing focus back to Morgantown, Carter continues to crack various Mountaineer career top-10 lists.

His 190 3-pointers is seventh in school history, though is just 10 3-pointers out of fifth. He will likely finish the season in fourth place behind Alex Ruoff, Kevin Pittsnogle and Patrick Beilein. In Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh, Carter passed Joe Mazzulla for 13th on the career assists list, and he’ll easily finish inside the top 10, possibly as high as sixth all-time.

Defensively, the steals record he sets when the season is done may be untouchable. Carter’s value to the team continues to be put on display with each game, at times it’s even more evident when he not on the court, like fans saw Saturday against the Panthers.

BLOG: Carter, Guards leading the way for WVU

It was well understood heading into the season that senior guard Jevon Carter was likely going to have to be the leader on and off the court for No. 18 West Virginia (8-1) this season.

On the court Carter has continued to be one of the toughest, grittiest defenders in the country, setting the school record for career steals last week. Not only has he been a stellar defender, but he’s also been the Mountaineers’ top scorer at just under 20 points per game.

Behind Carter, though, has been a duo of guards also averaging double-figures in scoring, Daxter Miles Jr. and James “Beetle” Bolden.

The backcourt tandem of Carter and Miles have put together a combined 10 games of at least 16 points highlighted by Miles’ 32-point performance against Morgan State.

Miles, who at times can be lights out from beyond the arc, has been doing much of his damage from two-point range, driving to the basket, getting putbacks to go down, and scoring on contested jumpers.

WVU head coach Bob Huggins has repeatedly said this year that the improvement in Miles’ game comes from constant work in the practice facility.

Carter has not only been scoring well, but he’s leading the team in assists (5.7) and steals (4.2) per game, and is third on the team in rebounds (5.3).

The senior guard is coming off a double-double performance Tuesday against No. 15 Virginia. So far, he has put together three games of at least 10 points, five assists, four rebounds and four steals.

With the two senior guards leading the way, Bolden seems to have stepped into the role as the best scorer off the bench. It’s a role that’s been extremely important to Mountaineer teams’ success over the past few years, with the likes of Jaysean Paige and Tarik Phillip each making a major impact as reserves.

Bolden is averaging 11 points per game and has gone over that season average five times,  including 19 points in the season opener against Texas A&M.

This isn’t to say the big men haven’t been getting it done.

Sagaba Konate has improved his game, and Lamont West is WVU’s third-leading scorer. Sophomore forward Wesley Harris has also been a nice addition, as has freshman Teddy Allen.

But the guards have been leading the charge.

Backcourt players have accounted for 64 percent of double-figure scoring outputs this season, and Carter, Bolden, and Miles have also been getting it done on the defensive end, each averaging at least 1.3 steals per contest.

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.