43 Jared Carter

Jared Carter was born September 20, 1986, to Jeff and Kathy Carter. His father, Jeff, is 6-10 and played basketball at Henry County and Georgetown College. His mom, Kathy, is 6-2, and his grandfather was 6-11. Jared was 6-0 as a sixth grader and had grown to 6-8 by his freshman season. He moved back to Georgetown, Kentucky in 2002 from Burlington, North Carolina, and began playing for Scott County High School as a sophomore. The 230-pound Carter was only a role player for Scott County as a 6-11 junior, but developed into a star as a senior, leading the Cardinals to a 27-4 record. He averaged 16.3 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 6.4 blocked shots per game. This nearly triple-double caused a national stir. His 200 blocks set a Kentucky prep record (the old record was 173) earning him First Team All-State honors. He had a season-high 13 blocks on March 7, 2005, against Anderson County in the 8th Region tournament.

Carter, at 7 foot, 2 inches tall, received an offer from Kentucky in February of 2005 and signed a letter of intent to play for Kentucky on April 13, 2005, giving the Wildcats three players who stood 7 feet or taller. He chose Kentucky over North Carolina, Illinois, and Georgia Tech. Lukasz Obrzut and Shagari Alleyne were the other 7-footers already on Kentucky’s roster. “We’re very happy that Jared will be joining our program,” Kentucky coach Tubby Smith said. “He’s a talented player who will fit wen into our system. It’s always exciting when we can bring in a young man from Kentucky who understands how important Wildcat basketball is to this state.”

In 2005-06, Jared showed some promise early by being aggressive in the paint and demonstrating many of the skills he had developed in his last year at Scott County. “He’s probably the biggest surprise so far,” Tubby Smith said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a player who wanted to be a player so badly. I’m glad we recruited him.” But Jared was limited by his slow footwork and inability to defend the faster and stronger SEC centers. Carter averaged only 5 minutes per game on that team.

During practice on November 11, 2006, Carter dislocated his right shoulder and was held out until the Wildcat’s sixth game of the year. Jared appeared in three games in 2006 before re-injuring his shoulder in practice on December 7, 2006. The injury came two days after Carter played a season-high nine minutes against Tennessee-Chattanooga. On December 22, 2006, Carter had reconstructive surgery on his right shoulder and sat out the rest of the year, intending to apply for a medical redshirt at the most advantageous time.

The injury bug simply wouldn’t leave Carter alone. In June, Carter was given the green light to play again after six months’ rehabilitation from reconstructive surgery on his right shoulder. But five minutes into his first pickup game, the 7-foot-2 Carter went for a rebound and felt that same feeling in his shoulder. It had dislocated — again. In October, Carter was cleared to practice, but only on a limited basis. “I think he still lacks confidence,” and understandably so, Gillispie said. “Two shoulder surgeries, rehabbing, any of us would be a little leery (of re-in-jury).” He did return to action for the first regular season game of the season on November 6, 2007, against Central Arkansas. He played only 2 minutes. He played a career-high 16 minutes against Houston on December 18, 2007, and scored a career-high six points in a game without star freshman forward Patrick Patterson. “He’s been coming every single day to try to get better in practice,” Gillispie said. “I’ve been telling him the last four, five or six practices, ‘Hang in there, hang in there, hang in there. Your time is about to come.'”

In the summer of 2008, Carter joined Athletes in Action on a 13-day trip to Africa for a four-nation basketball tournament.

In his final year, Carter was the lone senior on the roster. Despite Gillispie’s indications in the pre-season that Carter would have a bigger role in his final year that never materialized. Carter played in only 10 games for a total of 33 minutes in his senior year. He got his first career start on March 4, 2009, against Georgia while being honored as the lone senior on Kentucky’s Senior night. He played four minutes and scored two points in that game.

His shoulder injury limited his play to just 42 games in four years, scoring just 40 points.

“My four years I have had a great experience.  I have been through a couple of coaches (Tubby Smith and Billy Gillispie) and injuries, but overall, I met two great coaches and a bunch of players,” said Carter. “One of the greatest guys I ever met is (former UK equipment manager) Bill Keightley. It was an honor to meet him.”

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