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January 9, 2007
Matt Carroll’s confidence level is a lot like his jump shot. It just keeps going up. And, in the case of those long-range, quick-release jumpers, going in.
With the NBA season rapidly approaching the mid-point, Carroll, a 6-4 guard from Notre Dame, finds himself on a roll at precisely the right time.
A sizzling stretch of productive games has created an offensive infusion for the Charlotte Bobcats, a team in major need of one. And it has given Carroll, for the first time, a chance for some stability in a four-year pro career that initially made him something of a hoops vagabond.
“You look back on it and it’s kind of like building up your resume,” Carroll said. “You learn to put things behind you when you’re in a tough situation. Down the road you can look back and say, ‘Come on, man, you’ve been here before. You’ve had big games. So suck it up and do it.’ ”
Carroll’s recent resume shows a steady rise in performance, with each good game seemingly begetting another.
Overall he is scoring 9.7 points per game while playing 17.5 minutes and shooting 44.5 percent (including 38.6 percent on three-pointers). But over the past month he has been getting better as he goes, and the numbers have spiked dramatically.
Consider the evidence:
His aim at the line has been consistent throughout. He has made 52-55 free throws overall and leads the NBA with a 94.5 percentage.
The individual highlights came on December 23 when the Bobcats knocked off Northwest Division leader Utah as Carroll scored all of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, and on December 29 when Carroll rang up a career-high 27 in a triple-overtime victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
While his three-pointers get most of the attention, he has not been afraid of contact. At Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff’s urging, he has slashed inside for closer shots, sometimes drawing fouls and going to the line for his high-percentage free throws.
“I thought the difference was what had not been happening for us,” Bickerstaff said after the win over the Jazz. “We had a lead and it was a large enough lead and then we made shots, with Matt making shots.
“Matt was settling (for jump shots) a couple times. We told him to try to get to the free throw line. And when he was open, the guys got him the ball.”
Carroll’s surge has coincided with a sharp overall improvement in Charlotte’s play, though that has not been a solo achievement. For one thing his teammates have been heeding Bickerstaff’s repeated pleas to get the ball into the hands of the hot shooter down the stretch, and a variety of players have filled that role from time to time. For another, the Bobcats have been playing with more cohesiveness and aggression, despite four inexplicably non-competitive games over the past month.
“I want to do what the team needs,” Carroll said. “You just want to step up for your teammates… Whether I’m playing 40 minutes or 15 minutes, I’m going to be ready to go. I’m going to play my game the way I play. I’m coming in being aggressive, looking to score, looking to push the ball, whether I’m starting or not.”
Carroll has started only twice in his 27 appearances this season, but he appears comfortable with his role.
There were times in his first two seasons, after becoming Notre Dame’s all-time leader in three-point scoring and achieving all-Big East first team status as a senior, that he must have wondered if he would ever find an NBA home.
His name was not called in the NBA draft but he continued chasing a pro career, first signing a free agent contract with the New York Knicks in September, 2003. He was waived a month later.
He was picked up by the Portland Trail Blazers, waived in January of his first season and played for a while with Roanoke in the National Basketball Development League. He had two more cracks at the NBA, with San Antonio and Golden State, before returning to Roanoke and eventually catching Bickerstaff’s eye.
Carroll joined the Bobcats on February 23, 2005 and has been in town since.
He treated his career, it seems, with the same stay-with-it approach that he and most other shooters take with their game. And he has been resilient, just as with his game this season – he has had isolated poor-shooting games (1-7, 2-7, 2-11) and bounced back each time with a 50-percent, double-figure performance in the next game.
“The only way to make shots is to take shots,” Carroll said. “Especially after a tough shooting game, I really try to focus on, ‘Come out and keep firing. Come out and be ready to go.’
“I’ve had that motive my whole life, and I just have to keep saying it to myself.”
Leonard Laye covered the NBA, ABA and college basketball for more than three decades for the Charlotte Observer and the old Charlotte News until his retirement from writing sports fulltime. He will write a regular column throughout the season for BobcatsBasketball.com for his second straight year.
