Keith Carter Commits To Atlantic Ten School

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

November 4, 2011

8:00 P.M. CST

The recruitment of Keith Carter has been a strange one to say the very least.  Not quite two months ago, the 6'0 2012 point guard from Proviso East High School in Maywood, IL decommitted from Loyola-Chicago, saying that he rushed into his decision and that he wanted to look at other options. 

And now having done so, it appears as though this time Carter is off the board for good.  That is because Carter has committed to St. Louis University after taking an official visit to the school last weekend.  Carter ended up choosing the Billikens over offers from Northern Illinois, Toledo and Ohio U.  He had also begun to attract some interest from a few schools in high major conferences, although he did not receive scholarship offers from those programs.

To put things mildly, there was a bit of mystery surrounding how Carter's commitment came about.  That is because ever since Carter decommitted from Loyola, both Carter and his father had been rather tight-lipped with respect to leaking out a lot of recruiting specifics.  As a result, some conflicting information surfaced as to exactly when the Billikens extended an offer to Carter.

The bottom line is that Carter knew that he had an offer from St. Louis head coach Rick Majerus awaiting him as soon as he would be able to make it to campus.  However, it had been difficult for Carter to schedule a visit until now due to the fact that his father maintains a vigorous schedule working for the U.S. Postal Service and had become a bit distrustful of having someone else accompany his son on the visit.

Carter enjoyed a splendid spring and summer campaign on the traveling team circuit playing for Team NLP and was named a co-winner of our Summer award as the Most Improved Player In Illinois.  Although Carter does not have explosive quickness or stellar athleticism, he simply makes plays and knows how to win.  He never takes a play off and makes the right decision the majority of the time.  Carter has the ability to attack the basket, is good in transition and can keep defenses honest from behind the 3-point arc if left unattended.

Kudos definitely go out to Billikens Associate Head Coach Jim Whitesell who was instrumental in helping Majerus close the deal on Carter.  Whitesell watched Carter in an open gym at Proviso East during September and from that moment on made Carter a top recruiting priority for the Billikens.  Carter becomes St. Louis' second 2012 commit, joining 6'6 shooting guard Jared Drew from Cathedral High School in Indianapolis. 

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