BU’s Carr Rides The Comeback Trail
If America East had a Comeback Player of the Year award, Boston University junior guard Chaz Carr would be an easy pick for the winner. It wasn’t something one who followed the team might have expected two years ago.
Carr had a big freshman year, as he was an America East All-Rookie selection and made the second team All-America East as part of the Terrier team that went to the NCAA Tournament. He posted the third-highest point total for a Terrier freshman and won an America East Player of the Week award, just the second time in the conference’s history that a freshman got the honor. He averaged 13.5 points and 2.7 assists per game, made over 37% of his three-pointers, and looked like he was on his way to four years full of honors.
“As a freshman you want to come in and just get some time, but to come in and help my team win a championship was very exciting,” Carr said of his first year.
His sophomore year was a different story. Carr got off to a slow start, scoring in double figures just once in the first eight games and struggling to shoot the ball. The low point was a scoreless outing against Ohio University, but that wasn’t all. His father was ill, which weighed on him, and he eventually passed. Carr missed the only game of his career to attend his father’s funeral in early January.
“A death in the family is always tough for someone, and while you’re playing, it has an effect on you,” Carr reflects. “You just keep going.”
Head coach Dennis Wolff, who played with Carr’s uncle at the University of Connecticut in the late 1970s, saw the effect everything had on him.
“Because he’s such a good kid, he tried so hard to get himself righted that he only made itself worse,” Wolff says. “I know I spent all last year saying to the coaches that it was something that, unfortunately, time was going to have to rectify, and I think that’s what happened.”
Senior Matt Turner feels Carr was no different than many other Terriers.
“I feel like a lot of players on our team had a tough year last year, for one reason or another,” he says. “He’s having a real good season, and playing up to his potential.”
By the end of the season, Carr had started to turn the corner. He scored 28 points on 9-16 shooting in the quarterfinals and semifinals of the conference tournament, looking more like the player he was as a freshman. Although he was just 1-7 in the championship loss to Vermont, he had started to regain his form, and it got him ready to come back with a good junior year. He felt ready to focus and work hard, and the results have shown it.
Carr has been a consistent scorer for the Terriers this season, leading the team in scoring at 13.1 points per game and reaching double figures in scoring in all but five games. He’s also a close second in assists, and has had big games when the Terriers have needed it. He had 22 points and 5 assists in their overtime win at Ohio University, 16 points and 5 assists at cross-town rival Northeastern, and a season-high 25 points at Vermont in a big showdown game just a couple of weeks ago.
“As a team we’re playing very well, and for me to be able to contribute like I want to and to help my team out has been a blessing,” he reflects.
To top it off, Carr surpassed 1,000 career points in the team’s last regular season game against Binghamton, an accomplishment that Wolff put into perspective.
“It made me feel proud of him and for him,” Wolff said. “I think that to reach it in his junior year on a team that has so many different options is a very good thing.”
With Carr leading a balanced attack, the Terriers will enter the America East Tournament having won 12 games in a row and 23 of 24 since starting the season 0-3. They have an experienced group with four seniors in guards Kevin Fitzgerald and Turner, along with steady post forward Ryan Butt and versatile Jason Grochowalski. Forward Rashad Bell, a first team All-America East selection last season who hasn’t been quite at the same level this year, joins Carr among the juniors. Two key developments have been sophomores Kevin Gardner and Shaun Wynn, the latter of whom is probably the most improved player in the conference.
“Prior to the season, when we were talking about the potential of this team, it was imperative in the coaches’ minds that one or both of them would have to emerge,” Wolff says. “I don’t know if we ever imagined that Shaun would have emerged the way he has, to the fact that he’s arguably one of the better players in the league right now.”
A native of Manchester, Connecticut (right down the road from the University of Connecticut), Carr committed early to the school after his visit, the only school he visited. He liked the location and academics, and the coaching staff did a good job of recruiting him. Described by Wolff as “consistent” off the court, he is enrolled in the School of Hospitality Administration and says starting a business is one post-basketball idea he has. Besides his good moments on the court, he’s enjoyed the college years and figures to enjoy his last year, including playing games in the new Harry Agganis Arena, which is slated to open on January 3, 2005.
But first he will continue to enjoy the comeback year he has had, and with the way the Terriers have been playing as the tournament approaches, that may continue on for a while.
