“Make room atop the Lancer Leaderboard!"
Scott Bacon was on the call that February night in Norfolk almost two years ago when Antwan Carter set the all-time men’s basketball scoring record at the school. Carter’s jumper with 1:06 against Norfolk State marked the 1,808th point of his illustrious career. It was a career that saw him claim not only the top place on the program's all- time scoring list ahead of Keven Jefferson (1,806) but second place behind Jerome Kersey's rebounding record of 1,162. After his first professional season in the Netherlands, Carter is back home stateside for a few months and was in Farmville last week, catching up with a few old friends and teammates.
Over coffee Friday, the Lancer legend talked about his first season overseas and what the transition was like going from a small country town in the heart of Virginia to Weert, a city of nearly 50,000 in the southeastern part of The Netherlands.
“I was nervous coming in, but all in all, it’s just basketball. Everybody gets nervous; I was just worried that the players were so big …it was more challenging because the players’ IQ is on a whole other level," said Carter.
Carter added, “I just did my best. I went in, I worked hard, shot every day so I got better and I ended up averaging 15 [points] and nine [rebounds] so, it was a pretty good season for me.”
Carter also discussed the change in culture and living that he experienced during his transition. “It was definitely a big culture shock because mainly I’m not used to seeing 90 percent of the people ride bikes everywhere they go. I’m not used to the food, and the hours… the only thing that’s open after 5 o’clock is McDonald’s.”
Carter’s team, known last year as Stepco BSW, made it to the playoffs in their first year and was swept in the first round by the No. 1 seed. Dutch teams are sponsored by different companies and named after those sponsors. Stepco isn’t renewing their contract with BSW and instead the team has a new sponsor, Maxxcom. Now the St. Petersburg, Fla. native is looking to potentially take his talents elsewhere as his basketball journey continues.
“Basically, I don’t think I’ll be going back to Stepco in Holland because they lost their main sponsor,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll be stable for me to just go back without the same head coach that I had the two American teammates that [I] bonded with … my agent’s working hard for me; he’s looking into Turkey, Austria, Japan, France and Italy right now," added Carter.
Even though he’d enjoy playing in a warm-weather city, he added that money will play a big role in his decision. “I’m not doing thisfor free,” he said. “I’m not in it for the money, it’s just that I can’t play for nothing. I have to live. It’s a fun life, but I’ll say if I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t do it.
“It’s a sacrifice still because I’m away from my family for eight months and [even] when I was here I was away from my family a lot.
In that vein, Carter went on to tell the story of how his path ended up going through Farmville for four years. Current head women’s basketball coach Bill Reinson was an assistant on the LU men’s team from 2002-10 before being hired as an interim coach, and eventually on a full-time basis, to replace Kristin Caruso, who was fired on Dec. 6, 2010. Reinson was in the Tampa Bay area on a recruiting trip in the late winter of 2008 and was scheduled to watch a late game that night, but decided to watch the game before, featuring Carter’s St. Petersburg High School and Tampa’s Gaither High.
Someone shined, alright, and that someone was Carter. He dominated that playoff game, and Reinson came back to Farmville and reported to former head men’s basketball coach Mike Gillian about what he saw from the 6-foot-6 big man. Carter was working to help support his family, and therefore didn’t have time to play AAU ball.
Before Longwood gave him a look, he hadn’t received any offers – there was talk of some, but nothing had come to fruition.
Carter visited the campus and went to a cookout held for him by Gillian and the rest of the team at the coach’s house. After discussing things with the staff, he decided to become a Lancer.
“I feel like Mike Gillian did a lot for this program and this program wouldn’t be where it’s at without him … He was blessed to have 10 years, but at the end of the day, it’s a business and stuff happens. It’s [his departure] not what a lot of people wanted to see, but at the sametime, he had no control over it. I’m blessed that he was here for me and he believed in me, because he was the first person that ever told me he believed in me.”
His No. 4 jersey or number has yet to be retired alongside Jerome Kersey’s No. 54 or Colin Ducharme’s No. 52 in Willett Hall.
“Hopefully,” he said while clearing his throat, “Longwood puts that thing up somewhere."
