MSU basketball's Ben Carter out indefinitely after knee surgery

Ben Carter came to Michigan State to bring veteran depth to the Spartans’ frontcourt.

Now his future is in limbo.

The UNLV graduate transfer suffered a second left knee injury this year over the weekend and will again require surgery. The injury occurred when he landed awkwardly after contesting a shot, according to MSU. There is no timetable for his return.

The 6-foot-9, 225-pound Las Vegas native suffered a left torn knee ligament after playing 22 games last season for UNLV, and the ensuing surgery kept him out all summer. He played two years at Oregon before joining his hometown Runnin’ Rebels. Carter averaged 8.6 points and 6.0 rebounds in his one season at UNLV.

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Tom Izzo brought Carter to MSU after losing Deyonta Davis to the NBA and Marvin Clark and Javon Bess to transfer after last season.

“I feel awful for Ben,” Izzo said in a release. “He had worked extremely hard on his rehab and to suffer another knee injury on a fluke play is incredibly cruel.”

MSU has Gavin Schilling and Kenny Goins returning in the post, though Goins also is coming off offseason knee surgery. The Spartans also have true freshmen Miles Bridges and Nick Ward at forward, as well senior Matt Van Dyk.

Carter was expected to bring some shot-blocking and defense-stretching shooting ability from the power forward spot. Schilling and Ward are predominantly center and low-post options when they are at forward. When healthy, Goins has some face-up shooting capability between the 3-point arc and blocks. Bridges is at his best when slashing to the basket, and he’ll need to show some consistency with his shot early as a freshman to get the green light from the outside more often.

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Izzo recently gave the 6-5, 220-pound native Van Dyk the Spartans’ final scholarship that opened up with Davis leaving for the NBA. The Imlay City native and former walk-on averaged 1.1 points and 0.6 rebounds in 2.3 minutes over 21 games last season, including a few dunks.

Van Dyk was a first-team All-Region XII junior college selection in his one season at St. Clair County Community College before enrolling at MSU and making the team before the 2014-15 season.

“He’s been great with our young kids, he’s a great student, he’s an unbelievable worker. That’s always a good guy to have around,” Izzo said of Van Dyk this summer. “I plan on using him. And he is the best athlete on the team.”

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Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@chrissolari.

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