Michigan State's Ben Carter granted 6th year by NCAA
EAST LANSING – Ben Carter will get a chance to play for Michigan State after all.
The NCAA granted the graduate transfer forward a sixth year of eligibility today after Carter suffered a knee injury that kept him out all of the 2016-17 season.
“I honestly didn’t know if the waiver would be granted,” Carter said in a release, “but I kept praying that I would be able to play one more year of college basketball.”
The 6-foot-9, 225-pound forward from Las Vegas suffered his first knee injury in January of 2016 while playing in his only season at UNLV. He arrived at MSU last summer after the Spartans lost Deyonta Davis to the NBA Draft and Marvin Clark and Javon Bess to transfer after the 2015-16 season.
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Carter then suffered a second knee injury during MSU’s preseason workouts in October and sat out the entire year along with 6-9 Gavin Schilling, who will return for a fifth year this fall. That left the Spartans undersized in the post last season.
“This is certainly good news for Ben,” MSU coach Tom Izzo said in a release. “Despite being injured all of last season, he was a positive addition to our team. Ben was a great teammate and looked for any way he could to contribute, never missing a practice. He’s worked extremely hard on his rehab, and still has a lot more work to do, but I’m happy that he’ll get a chance to take the court with us next season while also being able to finish his master’s degree.
“After two knee injuries there are never any guarantees, but I’m hoping that he’ll be able to contribute a little bit on the court and a lot off it.”
Carter averaged 8.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 24 minutes over 22 games and shot 55.6 percent from the field in his only season with his hometown Running Rebels. He sat out the 2015-16 season after transferring to UNLV after two seasons at Oregon.
“When I first decided to transfer to MSU, I thought it would be just a quick eight-month stop. I never imagined I would form the strong bonds with my teammates that I have,” Carter said. “Everyone embraced me as part of the family, even after my injury, and that only makes me more excited for next year. I look forward to finishing my master’s, and helping the team in any way I can.”
That leaves Izzo with just one open scholarship for the 2017-18 season. The Spartans remain in the mix for highly touted wing player Brian Bowen from Saginaw. Bowen, who played his senior season alongside MSU commitment Jaren Jackson Jr. at La Lumiere School in Indiana, told Rivals.com last week that he still does not have a time frame for his decision.
MSU, Arizona, Creighton, Texas and North Carolina State remain his finalists, but Bowen also told Rivals.com that he also has expanded talks with Oregon and Florida State.
“Miles Bridges returning to MSU caught me off guard a little bit, but really I'm not that surprised he decided to stay,” he said.
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free onAppleandAndroiddevices!