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Delaware's Carter ready to lead after long ACL rehab

11/14/2016, 9:45am EST
By Jeff Griffitb

Delaware's Eric Carter (above) is expected to be a big piece for the Blue Hens after missing last season with a torn ACL. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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Spending a season sidelined by injury is obviously never easy.

But it's a little bit easier when you have someone to go through it with.

Take the example of Eric Carter, a 6-foot-9 redshirt sophomore forward at the University of Delaware who tore his ACL at the beginning of his junior season – not in some in-game collision, but in a freak accident in practice, while being guarded by teammate and then-roommate Chivarsky Corbett.

“We were doing a full court one-on-one,” Carter said. “I beat him and had him on my hip. I was going to up to dunk, and I planted to push off and it just locked. I heard the pop and I knew. I didn’t want to admit it.”

Not much later, after the Blue Hens’ loss to Temple in late November, Corbett was in the same position as Carter with a torn ACL, facing the task of viewing an entire season from the bench, not to mention the long rehabilitation process.

But the light at the end of the tunnel has finally appeared, and as a new season has just begun, Carter is ready to get back on the court and play a leadership role as one of the only experienced players remaining on a UD program riddled with transition.

“It’s great (to be back), it’s just my happiness,” he said. “I mean, overall, myself, I’m just more energized, more excited, this is what I love to do. Speaking for me and Chivarsky, since we were roommates going through it, we’re just both excited to be back and excited with the new staff and for the whole year to come.”

According to Carter, the journey through rehab was even more difficult than it may seem from an outside perspective.

Initially, he needed to take some time to go home and gather himself, finding his identity without the sport of basketball in his life. His school work suffered, but he ultimately got back on his feet to salvage a 3.2 gpa in that fall semester, and keep his head up regarding his rehab.

While many of his friends brought critical support, Carter said it was going through the process with Corbett and developing a routine together that helped the most.

“I had a lot of people in my corner helping me,” Carter said. “My friends at home, even Chivarsky, because we would wake up day in and day out, hop in my car at eight a.m. and drive down for our first session of rehab, and then go to class and come back down for our second. He was a little bit behind me, so there would be a day where he’d say, ‘I’m sore from this,’ and I’d say that’s casual, it’s normal, but it shows that it’s working.”

Finally, although maybe a bit later than he would have liked, Carter was finally cleared by doctors in July, and began practicing fully with the team.

Since that time, he has worked a heavy amount with assistant coach Bill Phillips, a 6-foot-10 former St. Joe’s Hawk, who works with the big men like Carter, 6-foot-9 Barnett Harris, 6-foot-8 Skye Johnson and others, and has provided a wealth of help and development for Carter.

According to Carter, the two have been working very well together since Phillips “jumped right on” a request from Carter to workout when he first came back to school.

“We built an instant connection of him just wanting to get better,” Carter said. “He’s really taught me that it’s not about it being in here for an hour and 45 minutes and taking 500,000 shots, it’s about the time that you’re here, working 100-percent every rep.”

“I feel like I’ve been better around the basket and been able to step out,” he added. “I’ve never had a coach here that was comfortable stepping out and I always knew I could.”

With such a grueling, yet also character-building experience in his rear-view mirror, Carter has already begun to take the next steps towards developing into the leader on and off the court that the Blue Hens desperately need him to be.

But the feeling of simply being back on the court is undoubtedly the best part of his redshirt sophomore season -- which started with an impressive 14-point, 15-rebound night in a win over Goldey-Beacom Friday night and has him averaging 9.0 ppg and 10.0 rpg through two games -- finally being underway.

“It’s good now,” he said. “But it was a long process.”


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