West Virginia’s Jevon Carter won the first-ever Naismith Defensive Player of the Year trophy Sunday, an award befitting the nation’s leader in steals.
Hours later he repeated as the NABC’s top defensive player.
Carter collected the awards in San Antonio, Texas, and shared his gratitude for WVU’s coaches developing the pressing style that became the hallmark of his career:
“If you guys don’t know, I play in a hard style of basketball that goes by the name of ‘Press Virginia.’ I’ve been in it four years and it’s been an amazing ride.
“I couldn’t have done it without my coaching staff and Mountaineer Nation for believing in us. A lot of times we were the underdog because we didn’t play pretty. We played the hard way and fought on the defensive end as hard as we could. We just bought in, you know.
“Bob Huggins, he does a great job of getting the best out of all his guys, of getting guys from all over the place that were under-recruited. I felt like I was under-recruited, but he took a chance on a small guy from Maywood, Illinois. He saw something special in me and he brought the best out of me. For these last four years he turned a boy into a man.”
This season, Carter became the first four-time member of the Big 12’s All-Defensive team.
His 330 steals established a Mountaineers record, while his 246 assists broke the school’s single-season mark.