The Quiet Confidence of Cam Carter

By: D. Scott Fritchen

They yell at him to be more vocal. Cam Carter is a 6-foot-3, 190-pound point guard out of Donaldsonville, Louisiana. He was the second-ever signee for new Kansas State basketball head coach Jerome Tang. He transferred from Mississippi State after one season and has three years of eligibility remaining.

By all accounts, Carter is one of the most athletic players on Tang's first team. He drives the lane. He hangs in the air. He can either flip the ball off the glass or dish it off for two points. He hits midrange jump shots. And 3-pointers. He's unselfish. He's a baller.

And, well, he's too quiet.

"It's funny," he says, sliding into a chair in the K-State basketball theater at the Ice Family Basketball Center one day in early October. "Sometimes I'm out there on the court, and I'm here, but I'm not saying a lot. They kind of pick on me some days — "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" They want me to scream.

"They want to hear me scream the play or the defense. It can be mute, everybody quiet on the court, but if I'm not talking, they'll stop the play. Sometimes, I'll just scream.

"They want something to come out of my mouth."

Cam Carter was in the fourth grade. He bought the Jordan Military 4s. They were white, blue, and had a little gray. All of the boys at Lowery Elementary School wanted them. Because Carter had them. That's when Carter figured himself to be a leader. He also figured himself to be a friend to all. Whenever one of his friends was about to get into trouble for talking in class, Carter would tell the teacher that it was him. He'd take the blame. He'd accept the in-school-suspension.

"I thought it was a part of being a leader," he says. "I was willing to do it, knowing I was going to go home and get a whooping."

He was the neighborhood leader as well. Grandma Williams lived next door. She had the basketball goal. All of the kids came over. Carter was the best. He didn't talk much. Didn't need to. All he did was score the ball.

Sometimes, Grandma Williams would bring Carter inside. They'd talk.

"My grandma is a minister," he says. "She's big on praising God and she made sure we had God in our lives. That's why He's a big part of my life. I can say she introduced me to Him. God is the reason I'm here right now."

He chuckles.

"She's a great woman," he continues. "You all are going to hear her at the games. When she's at the games, she's going to be cheering and let everybody know she's there. We can be in a timeout, and she'll be cheering about the last play."

Cam Carter entered the transfer portal on April 13. His cellphone ringer woke him the next morning. It was Jerome Tang, who'd been hired by K-State on March 21. Tang said that he wanted to elevate the men's basketball program. Tang had two players on his roster — senior point guard Markquis Nowell and junior forward Ishmael Massoud. Tang needed to surround them with talent.

"Coach Tang woke me up and I tried to play it smooth like I was already awake," Carter says. "He introduced himself to me. I told him I had tutoring and would call in a little while. I called him back. He told me a lot about himself. He told me that he wanted to get me on board. The main thing I heard was that he's a winner.

"He saw in me what nobody else saw in me."

Carter played in 27 of 34 games, including four starts, while helping Mississippi State to an 18-16 record, including an 8-10 mark in the Southeastern Conference, and a NIT appearance last season. He played the most games of any freshman, twice reaching double-digits in scoring with a season-high 15 points (3-f0r-6 on 3-pointers) in his first-career start at No. 25 Alabama.

However, he averaged 2.1 points, 0.8 rebounds and 0.9 assists while playing 8.4 minutes per game.

"We had a new coach and I could kind of feel that he wasn't interested in me," he says. "I prayed on it a lot. I slept on it. I was like, 'Man, I don't know what to do.' I talked to him, and he basically told me that I wasn't good enough and he was going to get better guys.

"I knew I was better and I was going to show it."

Now Carter was on the phone with Tang.

"Coach Tang was real, he was genuine, and he was just telling me, basically, that he liked my game," he says. "That right there, that's what helped me to make the move.

"I'm grimy on the court, really grimy. I get after you every day in practice, I'm going to bring it every day, and I'm going to make sure our team gets better."

Talent? Cam Carter knows talent. He was a four-start recruit. He played with five-star recruits M.J. Rice (Kansas) and Caleb Foster (Duke) at Oak Hill (Va.) Academy in 2020-21. He played under legendary Steve Smith, who retired in March 2022 with a 1,225-98 record, and who coached 29 NBA Draft picks, including Carmelo Anthony, Rajon Rondo, Jerry Stackhouse and Rod Strickland.

Carter was the 114^th-rated player by 247Sports. He shot 50.4% from the floor, including 34.9% on 3-pointers, and averaged 4.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.0 steals while helping the Warriors to a 20-9 record and the quarterfinals of the GEICO High School National Championships.

He had four double-doubles and one triple-double. He earned the 2020-21 Coaches Award at Oak Hill, which is given to the player who gave himself each day to make the team better.

"It was fun because Coach Smith wanted the best out of me," Carter says. "No matter how well I did, he wanted more. There'd be times I'd be like, 'I'm really playing for Coach Smith?' I played at a level of competition I never thought I'd play at. Every game was like a dream come true almost. It was like it was fate."

Carter considers his decision to enter the transfer portal and leave Mississippi State one of the biggest of his life. He was sad. Then opportunity knocked — no rang — when he awakened to his cellphone the following morning.

"It brought my confidence level up to a 10," he says.

Carter believes joining Tang at K-State is fate. Carter, like Tang, follows the path of faith. And now he's in Manhattan, where he arrived in June, and he's balling with his new teammates, his new brothers, his friends, who he'd do anything for — including get in-school suspension for talking.

Except he doesn't talk. Not enough, anyway. It's a part of the growth process. He's used to doing his speaking on the basketball court.

"I'm a competitor," he says. "I always compete. I have confidence. If I thought somebody was better than me, I was going after him every day, no matter what. I was going to give it everything I had and I was going to take it from him.

"One-hundred percent I'm going to be an impact player. I'm going to bring everything I have every day, and be a better leader, and be more vocal, like Coach wants me to be."

He's excited to team up with Nowell on the hardwood.

"It's a dangerous combo for sure," he says. "I mean, Markquis's shooting ability is crazy. I've never seen it before. I know he can stretch the floor. I like to penetrate and he likes to shoot. I feel like we have that advantage. The ball in his hands, people have to come out to him, and he'll pass it back to me, and I'll drive and kick it back.

"We'll make some action happen."

K-State plays its exhibition game against Washburn on November 1 at Bramlage Coliseum. The team practiced inside Bramlage not too long ago. Carter says the arena is "crazy." He has seen the videos of K-State fans losing their minds in the stands at games. He is ready to make them cheer.

At the moment, silence fills the K-State basketball team theater, as Carter reflects upon his path to this point.

"What have I learned most about myself?" he says, pausing. "I've learned that I'm strong and God is with me — I know that for sure. I can get through anything."

When he steps onto the hardwood at Bramlage for the first time in his new uniform, he plans to make plenty of noise.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Cam Carter

Markquis Nowell

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