Carr shines as Lions seek tourney run
NEW YORK - As reporters milled about Penn State’s Madison Square Garden locker room Thursday evening, Tony Carr sat alone on a tan leather couch.
Surrounded by teammates, most joking with each other, cutting ankle tape or getting ice treatment, the Nittany Lions’ sophomore point guard stared intently, silently, at an iPhone in his palm. On it, highlights flashed in full screen of his team’s 65-57 win against Northwestern in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament just minutes earlier.
In yet another sterling performance, dropping 25 points, dishing five assists, and grabbing six rebounds in 39 minutes, many of those highlights were of Carr himself.
Asked what it’s like to watch his own highlights moments after a win, no less in a critical test at "the world's most famous arena," Carr acknowledged its surreal qualty.
“It’s crazy,” Carr said. “I watch a whole lot of film of myself game to game, so it’s nothing new to me. There are things I can do better, passes I can make, shots I can take. I watch film on myself every day.”
The performance could not have gone much better for Carr Thursday evening.
Stifled offensively for the first 13 minutes of the second half against a Northwestern defense determined to prevent his eruption, Carr essentially took over the game.
In what'd been a one-possession game with traded punches throughout the second half, the Lions needed it, too. First hitting a jumper with 6:55 to play to even the score at 50-50, he’d go on to produce 10 of the Nittany Lions’ final 17 points including a pair of back-to-back threes, first to give the Lions a lead and, on the second, a crucial cushion. Improving his clip from beyond-the-arc to a career-high 6-of-10 for the game, the shots, interspersed with an assist on a Josh Reaves 3-pointer, helped lift the Lions to the win.
“They went to some of their favorite action and just got him in ball screens,” said Northwestern’s Bryant McIntosh. “And he obviously knew it was winning time, and he stepped up and got aggressive offensively and was just looking to make plays. To his credit, he did.”
To Carr’s friends and teammates, watching the point guard work has become something of an expectation.
Frustrated by his own hard-luck performance, scoring eight points on just 2-of-12 shooting from the floor to go along with five rebounds and a mouth injury, sophomore forward Lamar Stevens acknowledged his teammate’s rise to the occasion.
“It’s big,” said Stevens. “I’ve been playing with Tony all my life, so seeing him do what he does, it’s nothing new. It’s just kind of expected.”
Close friend and teammate Nazeer Bostick concurred, adding that the first-team All-Big Ten selection is in this position not by coincidence. Improving his performances in every statistical category this season from his freshman campaign a year ago, Carr instead has translated his tireless offseason work to the hardwood this season.
In that, Bostick said, Carr is simply bringing to fruition work he’s already put in.
“He’s way better. He was good last year, but he’s way better,” said Bostick. “He worked out more. He’s in the gym more. He’s more confident and we’re more confident in him. Tony is just a good player. He’s the best point guard in the country, in the nation. And we believe in him.
“It’s what he’s been doing all season. He put the work in and he got the right to do it. He works out all day. He’s in the gym all the time and we got confidence in him, so that’s what Tony does.”
The Lions (20-12 overall, 10-9 Big Ten) will count on as much continuing Friday when they face No. 2-seed Ohio State (24-7, 15-3) back at the Garden (6:30 p.m., BTN). The winner of the quarterfinal matchup will face the winner of No. 3-seed Purdue against No. 14-seed Rutgers on Saturday (4:30 p.m., CBS).