PREP Athletics Basketball Podcast
PREP Athletics Basketball Podcast
What D1 Programs Really Want: Coach Craig Carter of South Kent School on Basketball IQ & Decision Making
In this week’s episode of the PREP Athletics Podcast, I sit down with Craig Carter, the new head coach at South Kent School who took over for Raphael Chalias last August. Coach Carter shares his journey from the playgrounds of Brooklyn to playing at Rutgers and coaching at the D1 level for both men’s and women’s programs. He offers valuable insights on basketball development, the recruiting landscape in today’s environment, and how he’s transforming the South Kent program with his “Trust and Believe” philosophy.
📌 Key Topics:
✅ Coach Carter’s basketball journey from Brooklyn playgrounds to Rutgers University
✅ The importance of playground basketball in player development and basketball IQ
✅ Differences between coaching men’s and women’s basketball at the D1 level
✅ How South Kent prepares student-athletes academically and athletically
✅ The recruiting process in today’s transfer portal and NIL era
✅ Development opportunities at South Kent for both prep and second team players
✅ What it takes to be a D1 guard in modern basketball
🗒️ About Coach Craig Carter:
Craig Carter grew up in Brooklyn where he developed his game on the playgrounds before playing college basketball at Rutgers University in the Atlantic 10 Conference. His coaching career includes D1 experience with both men’s and women’s programs, including stints at Rutgers, University of Wisconsin, and Florida State. Coach Carter brings a wealth of knowledge to South Kent School with his “TAB - Trust and Believe” philosophy, focusing on developing complete student-athletes while helping them reach their collegiate goals. Under his leadership, South Kent continues its tradition of sending players to top programs like Kansas, Pittsburgh, Iowa, Harvard, and many others.
For more information on prep school basketball and recruiting, visit prepathletics.com and subscribe to our newsletter.
🔗 Connect with Coach Craig:
X | https://x.com/coachcrcarter?lang=en
Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/southkenthoops/?hl=en
X | https://x.com/southkenthoops?lang=en
🔗 Connect with Cory:
Website | https://www.prepathletics.com
Twitter | https://twitter.com/PREP_Athletics
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/prep.athletics/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/PrepAthletics
Email | coryheitz@gmail.com
Phone | 859-317-1166
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Cory Heitz (00:00)
Welcome to this week's episode of the prep athletics podcast. I'm proud to have South Kent schools, new head coach, Craig Carter on. Craig took over for friend of the program, Raphael Chillious last August and has done a really good job transforming that team around and getting his culture into the program, into the school and learned a lot about him from his background. He grew up in Brooklyn, talks about playing on the playground and how he ended up at Rutgers.
He talks about coaching at the D1 level, both on the boys side and the girls side. And then we really get into it talking about South Kent School, the second team, how recruiting works in today's day and age, how he helps his players get better on the court and get seen by college coaches. And I wrote down so many quotes from him that I'm just going to use with future folks I've talked to, because he really had a lot of good wisdom out there today. So folks, thank you for joining us and please enjoy our podcast with South Kent.
Coach Craig Carter.
Cory Heitz (01:20)
Craig, welcome to the podcast.
Craig Carter (01:22)
Thank you. Thank you. Great to be here, Cory.
Cory Heitz (01:24)
Yeah, now you grew up in Brooklyn and you were good enough to play college basketball. yeah, where'd that?
Craig Carter (01:26)
Yes.
I think so, a long time ago. My jumper is not
his name anymore.
Cory Heitz (01:34)
What led you into the sport of basketball? Where'd you fall in love with it?
Craig Carter (01:38)
wow. That's that's an interesting story. So coming up, I was really a football guy. I was blessed enough to have a distant cousin, second cousin named Ron Springs to play for the Dallas Cowboys. And but at the time, I was a wide receiver. So I was more of a Lynn Swan fan. I'm aging myself a little bit here. And I'll never forget when I first met Ron, I had a Steelers jersey on. So obviously, know, the Cowboys and the Steelers rivalry back then, late 70s, early 80s was big. And so
It was a nice little funny joke to have with him when I was about nine to 10 years old. as I kept growing, I kept meeting people who were more into basketball. And one of my best friends in the world, Rodney Lide, I'll never forget he came to me. were in the sixth grade. He said, hey, man, you should play basketball. You're probably going to be pretty tall. And I was like, all right, we'll just play basketball together. And so I basically got into it because most of my friends were into it. And to just kind of be around them.
And I loved basketball at the time, but I really loved football. Football was really what I wanted to do. And my mom didn't really want me to do it. She actually tried to scare me out of it by watching a movie called North Dallas 40, where they were taking needles and all kinds of stuff to kind of get back on the field and stuff like that, which didn't deter me from getting into it. But it was more so my friends were into it. And then when I went to high school, my high school didn't have a football team. And so it just kind of just led me straight into basketball.
Cory Heitz (03:05)
And you chose to play at Rutgers. What other schools are you looking at and why did you pick Rutgers?
Craig Carter (03:10)
so I was looking at Columbia Brown, university of Vermont, Fairfield, Manhattan. so I had a, I had a good little cross section of schools. and then I wanted to pick in the school because of Craig Little Page, to be very honest. and I tell my guys here, I had no idea about level and conference, any of that stuff. I just went off who I felt was going to give me the most opportunity to play.
and who I had an opportunity to really bond with. And Coach Littlepage, even to this day, has been influential in my basketball life. And so I've known him since 1986. And when I decided to become a college coach back in 1998, he was the first call I made. Now, mind you, after my freshman year, he got fired at Rutgers and I played three years for Coach Wenzel. But because of our bond through the recruiting process,
I felt most comfortable calling him and he's been the most influential person in my career. He made the first call for me to get my first division one opportunity as a coach. He's been a mentor and a source of reference since then. And so I owe a great deal of my basketball life, especially as a coach to coach Little Page.
Cory Heitz (04:30)
Yeah, was Rutgers and A-10 back then.
Craig Carter (04:32)
We A-10 back then.
Cory Heitz (04:34)
So fun story, I was a ball boy at West Virginia for a lot during the mid to late eighties. So I might've swept up your sweat if you took a charge.
Craig Carter (04:38)
Okay. I had
a lot of sweat there with Virginia. I used to love to play that rifle or whatever it was going, canning going off every once in a while. It you a little joke, but I loved playing there. Actually, a really good friend of mine from the Bronx, a guy wrested soul, Chris Brooks and Greg Poindexter, we played against each other in high school. We were in the same high school conference and Chris and I played together a ton in the city.
Cory Heitz (04:59)
Yes.
Craig Carter (05:08)
especially coming up in high school and then after college, some semi pro stuff or whatever. And he was a great, great friend. Super tough, super tough, super tough kid, undersized five. You didn't want to mess with Chris and really loved him and miss him. Miss him as one of our basketball brethren from New York.
Cory Heitz (05:27)
Yeah. Now tell me this before we get into some other questions. Like what makes New York City basketball special? At least back in the eighties, like what was the defining factor? Because, you know, so many grades came out of there and you were in that same time period. Like, can you, can you pinpoint it on one thing?
Craig Carter (05:40)
I think playing outside in the park, and having to make a name for yourself in your neighborhood, right? And never being able to hide, if I can say that. you know, if you played every day, right, these were the same guys you had to learn to compete against. And, you know, you had to make your bones, right? Whatever rep you were going to have in your neighborhood had to be made every day. You're going to get challenged every day.
Cory Heitz (05:43)
Mm-hmm.
Craig Carter (06:07)
And playing pickup basketball is where I learned a whole ton of things, whether it be shot selection, know, time and score, you know, I can remember being really young, 14, 15 years old and wanting to play with the older guys and my uncle being outside playing and him having to force our way onto the court, me and my cousins and my brother. And then you had to realize at age 14, you're not shooting a ball.
It's your job to learn how to get everybody else shots and play defense and never turn the ball over. So then you learned how to earn your mark in the park. And then when you did that, now the big guys picked you. And then when you got a chance to play against older guys, the amount of pouring into you that you got because you played in the park with guys who came home from college and played was super instrumental in my development. If I didn't play with older guys my whole entire life, I don't think I would have been able to develop as a basketball player the way I did.
it.
Cory Heitz (07:01)
Are kids in New York City still playing on the playgrounds outdoors?
Craig Carter (07:04)
Nah, they don't play as much. Not that high school age group, right? Like you can play...
from maybe eight to 12. And then even then, if you're somebody who can play and get on an AAU team, you're not going out in the park, right? Too many kids have personal trainers. They go work out for an hour, you know, three or four times a week, as opposed to playing basketball, right? And so it stunts your IQ and your growth, I think, because I realized, you know, through the advent of Facebook, you know, when I started making Facebook friends with everybody who I played against, these guys were 10 years older than me when I was playing against them. And so they had a wealth
knowledge basketball wise that when I showed that I wanted to learn and I was willing to compete that they wanted to just pour into me and so it was a it was invaluable that knowledge to get from older guys even some guys who never played in college but just grew up playing in the park they just knew more things and they were they were willing to impart it to you if you showed yourself to be worthy of it.
Cory Heitz (08:04)
Yeah, you know, some women's programs play against men, right? know college, they do it in the college side, they do it in the high school side. And I'm spitballing here. Would it be any benefit to bring in guys like 28, 27 year old former NBA or NCAA D1 players or college players in general or former overseas guys to play against your current team now? Like, could you get that same effect potentially if you had enough players around you?
Craig Carter (08:07)
Yes.
You could definitely
and I don't know if this is against the rules, but I'll say it anyway. I tried to do that this year. There's a number of
connections I had with some older guys right in that 25 to 32 range who were still playing enough and still coming back home from overseas waiting to get a call who would have been willing to come down and scrimmage our guys and we just could never make it work. And I really wanted them to come here to kind of talk to them and like say, hey, this is what I went through. This is what you got to expect.
So that wouldn't just be coming from a 55 year old guy who just doesn't relate to him because I don't listen to NBA young boy, right? And so I wanted them to have that experience the same way I had it. Like I was blessed enough, I played for which would have been considered an AAU program called Dyckman basketball. So I played with Rick Smith. He was on my AAU team. And then we would work out on Friday nights at Brandeis High School.
with pros. So I got a chance to work out with Mark Jackson going into his rookie year. I worked with Rod Strickland, Ed Pinkney, crazy Ken Banister, Pat Cummings. These are all either...
NBA guys are super high level college guys that I played against Walter Berry. You know what mean? So these are the guys who were teaching me to game. Kenny Smith, these were the guys who were teaching me to game when I was 14, 15 years old, right? A lot of these guys don't have the same access. And so I try to make sure I impart all of that access to them. And I wanted to really get those older guys in here to beat our guys up, to be stronger than them, to let them understand like this is the level you want to get to. This is what it's going to take. so I'm looking forward to.
this next year, really making that happen and being better with my planning. Maybe doing it more than once, on a weekend so that guys get a real good cross section of wow, this is really what basketball should be looking like.
Cory Heitz (10:17)
Yeah. And that's a trade off Craig. Like, do you have the old guys, right? And parting their wisdom or a personal trainer with one-on-one development? Like, you know, what's the pros and cons of each? And I would say the older generation, like yours and mine who did play in solar players, probably just a little bit tougher. you know, you weren't driven around cones. were going through grown men and you learned something from that. Right. So interesting.
Craig Carter (10:21)
Right.
Right.
Right. Right. Right. Right. And there's something to
be said for both of it. I think you have to have a healthy balance. You can't just study and never take the test, if that makes sense. Right. So the training is just the studying, but then you have to learn how to apply it. Right. And the cones don't move, but the bodies move. Right. They hit back. And then you have to learn how to get by. Like I was talking to a parent today about he wanted his son to be quicker. I was like, well,
Cory Heitz (10:48)
Yes.
Craig Carter (11:05)
Part of that is he has to make his decision quicker before he touches the ball. And so you don't learn that going against combs, right? You don't learn that from experience.
Right. I always liken it to driving. I got my license. I'm from New York, so I got my license much, much later than most people. I got my license when I was 20, but I'm hopefully not the same driver I was when I was 20, at age 55. Right. And over 35 years of driving, I've seen way more things that you can't take a test for, right. That you just got to go through, right. You get blown by on your right side, like, oh, okay. I got to use my mirrors better. I got to see that. You know what mean? I got to look in the mirrors and look again before I go. Could you never know what somebody else
man may not be doing. And so that's what playing does for you. And too many of our youth now only play games. They don't play pickup games, right, where they learn how to play different ways. And so that's what I'm trying to make sure we have a healthy balance of.
Cory Heitz (12:01)
Yeah, you got your reps in anything in life. You got to your reps in. You were a D1 assistant coach at both the men's and the women's levels, right? What's the biggest difference between the two?
Craig Carter (12:03)
Gotta get through everything. Yeah.
Yes.
Here's what I'll say. I don't know if it's that much of a difference. There is definitely a different way that you have to learn to communicate. But I think you have to learn to communicate with different ways with different people anyway. The greatest advice I ever got was when I first took my job in 2016 at University of Wisconsin, a friend of mine who made the same jump from men to women told me, Craig, make sure you don't coach them any differently because they'll see you.
they'll know it and they'll look at you as a fraud and then they'll think you don't respect them enough and then they won't play for you. And so I was way more in tune, I think, to what I said and how I said it. But then I learned that approach still works with boys too.
right, and with men. so, you know, especially as you get to this younger generation who hasn't been, you know, coached like with Bobby Knight type guys, you know, or people who are super hard on them all the time, they're not used to that. They're used to always asking why. They used to being able to have conversation. Whereas when we came up, there was no conversation. was like coach said, be here, be there. That's it. Right. It wasn't explaining why you did what you did. You were wrong. Fix it. Boom. That's it. Now it's you got to be willing to have conversation. You got to be willing to explain.
explain the why. And so I think I was more, I think I've always been a coach that guys can approach, but I think when I became a women's coach, it made me have to want to.
even be more patient. And I think that patience is helping me coach boys now too, you know, because you should ever be evolving as a coach anyway. And I think, you know, that communication part is big, right? It's not so much what you say is how you say it and what they hear and being cognizant of that at all times, I think is important. That is going to be times where, you know, it just has to be abrupt. And I have to say what I have to say and a message for you and then the message for everybody else. But then doubling back and then having that conversation
Cory Heitz (14:02)
Yeah.
Craig Carter (14:07)
afterwards when everybody's emotions are down, the heightening of the situation is kind of dissipated, then you can have that talk and then you can have that why and then they can really feel respected in that regard.
Cory Heitz (14:21)
Yeah, love that. Love that. Thanks for sharing that. When you got into your first D1 assistant job, right, until you took over at prep school recently at South Kent, you obviously had to recruit kids out of high school, kids out of junior college, et cetera. When you first started recruiting, when you made that first phone call or that first visit to a gym, what was the advice you were given? When you started recruiting, who taught you how to do it or you just trying to figure it out on your own?
Craig Carter (14:36)
Right.
See you.
I think, well, I kind of watched some people on the phone. I remember the things that were impactful for me when I was being recruited. I always liked being able to have honest conversation. And it didn't always have to be about basketball, right? And it's a thing that I learned from watching different people. And the most important thing is always making young men and young women feel like they're more than just a basketball player.
Right? Some of the, you know, as much as I've had some success in my career, wins and losses, I think the greatest success in my career is that I can, I'm able to maintain relationships with my players well after they start playing for me. That's the most important thing for me. And that they felt supported and then they feel like they can come to me for, you know, career advice or, you know, I just got invited to my first wedding.
That's going to happen in October. That was big for me. And so being able to do those things. And so when I started recruiting kids, you know, just trying to get to know them, ask questions about them, their family, what they did today. And then in the summertime when we were talking, then we would talk basketball. If it was basketball season, we would talk that. But every time I called them, I didn't want to talk about basketball. That gets old, right? And they don't want to deal with that all the time. you know, because I always tell parents,
You have to trust somebody with your child when they have that rainy Wednesday, right? When they either fail a test, break up with their boyfriend or girlfriend, had a bad game. Who can see that in them without them having to come to them first, help them rebound and have a better Thursday, Friday to get ready to play a game on Saturday. And I learned that.
Early on from Fran McCaffrey, I learned that early on from Barry Hamler, which was my first college job at Elizabeth City State University. I learned that from Coach Lapis when I worked at UMass.
for a year, he would always come to me at the end of the day like, Craig, who's in the tank? Who's in the tank today? Who do I need to talk to before they get a chance to talk to somebody in their family or one of their boys, you know, to make sure they can come back and be ready tomorrow to be their best self even if they had a bad day. And then so it taught me like, OK, you got to watch how guys are walking off the floor, how they interact with one another, you know, who's upset, you know what I mean? And make sure that they don't stew in that overnight, because then you might not be able to get them back. And then now it might
kind of permeate the rest of the locker room. And then now you really, you know what saying, fighting uphill on some black ice right there. And it gets to be a little bit tough.
Cory Heitz (17:24)
Yeah. And then, yeah, I love that. Now, when you were at the D1 level, what was your thoughts on prep school kids versus kids straight out of high school? Did you know early on that there was an advantage or did that even matter to you and your coaching staffs?
Craig Carter (17:38)
it didn't really matter as much. think, you know, development is development, right? And so what I, what I try to, you know, tell people is prep school only becomes a great advantage for you if you make an advantage.
You're not going to just come here and like walk through this portal and all of a sudden you're going to shoot 40 percent from three, right? And you're going to get 10 rebounds a game, right? You're going to have this incredible footwork in a post. All that's all the year does is give you another year to work on all that kind of stuff to add to your bag, right? To become more of a complete player. And if you don't take advantage of that, all you're to do is just be a year older, but not a year wiser.
I like to tell people this, and this is not just basketball. A lot of times people stunt growth because they grow old, but they don't grow up. Right. And so, you know, I tell my guys all the time and I tell my daughter this, like, time is the only thing you can't get back.
Right. And so every day you don't work on your game when you've allowed your parents to invest in you going to prep school is a day somebody else did and they get in that phone call and then they're getting that spot. And so when you commit to this, you have to say for this next eight to nine months, I'm going to be as dedicated a basketball player as I have ever been. And then I'm going to see what happens because even then there's no guarantee, but you know, without the work, nothing's going to happen for you. If that makes sense.
Cory Heitz (19:04)
Yeah. And so on that, when you have families talking to you and they want to know, like they're getting ready to make a big investment, their son to play with you for eight to nine months. And they say, look, what are we going to get out of this? Like we want to get a scholarship or we want to play at the highest level. You know, there's pressure. I feel it. You feel it. What do you say to families when they're trying to figure out like, how much playing time am I going to get? And what's going to be the end results? Like what's your pitch on
Craig Carter (19:10)
Right.
Right.
I tell them that your son dictates playing time, right? Everybody's going to get an opportunity. Because I'm a firm believer in young men and young women should be allowed to either play themselves into more time or play themselves out of the time they've already got, right? So I'm going give you that opportunity. But you have to earn that opportunity. And I can't just say, well, because your mom and dad are
you know, paying this money, I'm just going to let you play 20 minutes a game, right? And then we get beat by 40 because you're not in the gym. You're not working out on your on your body, not working on your shot, not working on your handle. You're not coming in, watching film. You're not talking with coaches to help you be better, because then it becomes a detriment to the program. It becomes a detriment to other kids in the program. And then that's not fair to them either. And so what I will tell them is you need to have an honest conversation with your son.
and say, if I make this investment in you and I get a phone call that you're not getting up and taking advantage of the fact that the assistant coaches are in the gym wanting to work out with you all day long, I'm going to bring you home because you might as just do that here. You can sleep the day away home and I can save money, if that makes sense. And so I want kids to make my job hard. I want you to say.
Cory Heitz (20:37)
Yeah.
Craig Carter (20:40)
We got 14 kids that could play because they're all doing everything. And then I still have to make a decision. Then still somebody's going to be upset. But then I can say to any college coach that comes in here when they come watch us in practice and watch me have two good teams compete against each other, that kid can play for you. I know he's only playing six or seven minutes for me, but I'm telling you right now, you bring him in, let him work out for you. You'll see he'll impact your team right away.
because of the work he's putting in. And we've had guys out of this program do that. We had a guy, you know, that's at NC North Carolina A &T, who played maybe seven minutes a game here, right? And he wound up being the most prepared freshman that they had at the school. He's a sophomore now. And so, but he worked, right? He worked. We had another kid that's at Colgate, you know, he played behind the McDonald's All-Americans, right? But now he's an all league kid, right? At the Patriot League, right? And came here with nothing because he worked.
Cory Heitz (21:22)
Mm-hmm.
Craig Carter (21:36)
But he had to learn it here and the guys on the team had to hold him accountable. so and then he figured it out. Let me grow up before this passes me by. And now he's one of the best guards in the Patriot League right now. So.
Cory Heitz (21:49)
I love it. Now help me on this. You've got, here's two scenarios that families have to look at, right? There are teams like yours that have a lot of talent on it. You know, some years, teams have 10 D1 players on it and you get the other end of the spectrum where you've got teams that maybe have one D3 player on it and you've got everything in between. There are pros and cons to being in a practice every day with 10 D1 guys and there's pros and cons to getting a lot of minutes under your belt. What's your, what's your thoughts, Craig? I'm like, which one's better? Is it case dependent on the kid?
Craig Carter (22:00)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
It depends on the kid, but here's what I'll tell you. If you got 10 D1 kids on your team, you got a lot of people in the gym, right? And even if your kid is not a D1 kid, that D1 guy might be up for a D2 or D3 job or has a friend that's at a D2 or D3 spot or maybe another lower level D1, right? Like I've had guys, I had one of my really good friends in the business, assistant coach at Seton Hall. And, you know, why I had kid here who couldn't play for him.
but he had connections at two other smaller D1 schools and he said, I'm gonna call on him and make him come out here and watch him. You know what I mean? And so just because those specific eyes aren't here, doesn't mean they're not on you, if that makes sense. And so, but we have to rise yourself to the challenge, right? You have to say, okay, this is gonna pay off and I'm a make coach.
Cory Heitz (23:04)
Yes.
Craig Carter (23:08)
help me out. If I think I'm a D1 guy, right, and we got all this energy, right, and guys are going to be here in our gym early on in September, you have to make them come back. You have to make them say, now got to get this kid on campus now. I might not offer him now, but I need to plant the seed so that come March, I can come back and get him, if that makes sense. And so again, the work
is the work that we can call whoever we can call. But if I call somebody and have them come watch you play and your body's not up to par and you're not playing smart. Like I told guys, I have a guy here who got some inches from a D1 school, a Mac level school, and he scored six points when they saw him play. So it wasn't about having gaudy numbers. It was about he looked like he could do the things they need him to do.
Cory Heitz (23:55)
Right.
Craig Carter (23:55)
And
he did it scoring six points. And you say that, and then they're like, yeah, but, and every time they say, yeah, but, you get in the game and then you try to score and you can't do it and then nobody calls you, then it's still Coach Carter's fault, which is, you know I'm saying, why you take this job and it's what I have to deal with, but.
You know, I'm very big on constant conversation. I used to work for a guy that said, you know, I was a top assistant. So he's like, Craig, you talk to parents. I don't ever talk to parents. I'm not like that. I'll have a talk. I was a parent to right. I'll talk to parents, you know what mean? But they also have to be ready for an honest conversation as well.
Cory Heitz (24:24)
Yeah.
That's what you want. don't want, mean, if I'm a parent, I want to hear it straight. You know, and sometimes the parent has to get in the phone to see, I have some parents that are wary about talking to preps school coaches and I say, no, it's okay. Have the kid talk first and going through that 18 year old brain sometimes gets translated and mixed up, but then have a family, you know, and the kid and the coach all get on a phone call together and it usually clears everything up like that. And, uh, it's just your communication break does that's what leads to divorces, wars, right? Every problem in life is down to communication, but
Craig Carter (24:41)
Right.
Right.
Definitely.
Right, right, right.
No, no, go ahead, go ahead.
Cory Heitz (24:59)
Let me ask you this. go ahead.
Well, I was going to say like with that, you know, the pressure always at the end of the day too is getting placed. Right. And now with the transfer portal with NIL, talk to me about timing because in the old days you'd come in in August to get a great open gym period. can get an offer sign and be done. like, tell me what you're advising your players on with the June scholastic period, with the open gym period, with the season. then now with the transfer portal after the season, like
How are you talking to families about how the process is gonna work these days?
Craig Carter (25:30)
So what I've been talking to parents about now is make sure you have a bang up spring and summer. So you can drum up some interests. Because just like you talked about earlier, when schools find out you're going to take an extra year to come play at a prep school and to play in a NEPSAC AAA, which is super, super competitive, a lot of high level guys come out of here.
We had a guy go to Kansas, we had a kid go to Pitt, know what mean? UC Davis, UMass, Iona, know what I mean? Harvard. And so we got a guy going to Iowa next year from here. So other schools, Cincinnati, Penn State, you name it. There's some high level guys in our league. And so what that does is it brings those eyes to you.
Now it's your job to make those eyes stay on you, right? It's not my job to keep calling plays just for you. It's your job to play the right way so that they look at you and say, okay, I know that Cory's going to be at South Kent next year. I got to stay in touch with Craig. I got to figure out, hey, who's he playing AAU with? What's his schedule? Can I get his number? Absolutely. Stay in touch with him, coach. I'm telling you, what you're seeing now is going to be different in September. Get on him, offer him, right? And then I start working, you know, the way I have to work it with them as well.
But the job is to make sure that you are somebody people have to have, right, on any level. And that comes with work. It doesn't come with me telling somebody to take you.
I can't do that. All I can do is put your product in front of them and then I can talk to you about your character, what kind of kids you are, your work ethic, how you are in the community here at South Kent. All of that stuff matters, right? And then, and I'm willing to do that for everybody, you know what mean? But you have to give me something to, for lack of better words, right? You have to give me something to put in front of them. And all I'm going to ask you to do is work for the things you tell me you want. That's it. And then when you do that, more times than not, something good is going to happen for me.
Thank
Cory Heitz (27:33)
All right. Let's say a kid comes from overseas or a kid has been injured or a kid's on the wrong AU team and they don't get the exposure in the spring and summer you talked about. And they're coming in August without that foundation laid. Now, what, what kind of process do you say to those families?
Craig Carter (27:49)
Now that process is we have to be strategic in what level we think he is.
And then we have to get as much film as we can, because people are going to start getting out less and less, right? And start getting that to them, right? And so I implore parents and like most of these AAU events now are filmed, right? Whether it's Borla TV, play sites, something, somehow, some way, you know, people are putting stuff on video. Well, get as much video as you can from the summertime. And then what we'll do is come August, right? We'll start pumping all that video out when I know guys are coming to school here. All right.
Cory's coming to school here. He's a 6'6 wing, really shoots it, here's some film on him. Coaches, my open gym times are here. So now they say, okay, I can get involved with this kid right away.
So there's ways to drum up interest, right? We just got to be strategic and we got to hustle. And I have a great staff of guys who are really good with video stuff and do a good job of posting stuff on social media, you know, so people start to follow us, right? Like I just saw, you know, two times I've gotten a big jump in social media following.
When I got my job at Florida State, I got a big jump and when I got the job here, all right, when I became the director. And so all of a sudden I had all these people that wanted to follow me, whether it be college coaches, prospective students, know, things of that nature. And so with that following, as it continues to grow and grow, now you get more and more eyes on you and we pump stuff out, you know what I'm saying, on a daily, weekly basis to help people.
Cory Heitz (29:19)
But now, more action is happening after the season now. Would you agree with that?
Craig Carter (29:23)
All
this stuff's going to happen after the season. So now, right when everybody's starting to get bumped out of their conference tournaments and their seasons are over and then they're starting to have their end of the year conversations about who's going to be on their roster and whatnot next year, now you start getting phone calls. Hey, you know, Craig, I heard about Cory. What can you tell me? What does he have? I coach, you should bring him on, talk to him. Here's his film, you know? And then so, you know, all of that stuff is happening now.
Now, once the portal opens, there'll be a combination of all of that. All because everybody thinks, you know, they're going to get in the portal and, you know, they're going to get their version of Cooper flag. It's not going to happen. Right. And what people don't, what they never see is a lot of people get in the portal and a lot of the portal stuff doesn't work out for whatever reason. Right. It's it's it's a lot of it that when people get guys, they're like, wow, he's not what I thought he was going to be. Right.
Cory Heitz (30:08)
50%. Apparently.
Craig Carter (30:18)
It happens. And so what's going to happen is you just have to push yourself in a position that somebody is going to get.
portal fatigue and everybody, you know what? I know everybody else is doing that. We're to go back old fashioned. I'm going to recruit high school kids, kids that are going to be hungry, kids we can work, kids we can mold, right? And maybe build a relationship and have them stay here for a while and not worry about getting in the portal. All right. So there's going to be a combination of it all. But if you're not prepared to be one of those guys that they call because you've been working and you've been doing what you had to do and you helped the team win. So we're playing later on into the season.
you're still going to miss out. So again, it all comes back to preparation. It all comes back to the investment that you make in yourself. All right. And then letting that work take you where you need to go.
Cory Heitz (31:00)
Yeah, I get all that, but you know, I'm getting it from some of my current clients right now. Like they are post-grads, it's March and they're feeling it. And you've got to feel it too, probably the pressure, because you've only got a couple of weeks now between now and school ending to get these, you know, paying clients placed, right?
Craig Carter (31:16)
Yeah, no, it's tough and you know, I'm a I try to be a calming effect, right? But don't get me don't get me wrong. I got frazzled inside with like trying to figure I got to call this one. I got to call that one. I got to stay on top of this. We got to get this film. We got to update this and send it out. But you just at the end of the day.
Cory Heitz (31:22)
Mm-hmm.
Craig Carter (31:33)
stressing and worrying about it never helps, right? It just matters of I got to do the work right from my end and I have to ask those guys to do the work. So even when we come back after break, you know, we got to get into our postseason workouts, right? We got to make sure when coaches come in here that they've seen you working from when the last time they saw you play until now has your body changed, right? Have you are you shooting at a better clip, right? Have you making better decisions? And then they can say, wow, this kid has made a jump from March to April.
Cory Heitz (31:35)
Yeah.
Craig Carter (31:59)
You know what mean? And because we're going to have open gyms and my open gym, we want to structure it more to protect kids from themselves. Right? It's not going to just be haphazard going up and down. It's going to be a winner and a loser. And if you win, you get to stay on, you know, because we have to make them play that way as opposed to everybody feeling like, I get a chance to play. You get a chance to play, but you might not get as much of a chance to play if you don't win. And then the winners get seen more. All right. So win the game, right? Play smart.
Cory Heitz (32:17)
Yes.
Right.
Craig Carter (32:27)
Right? And so, you know, hopefully they'll embrace it because I have no choice to but and then they'll figure it out, you know, either way.
Cory Heitz (32:35)
I love it. Now you got hired in August and it was an abrupt announcement because Rafael Chilias was the coach there, friend of the program, been on here a couple of times and you took over. had to figure out the players. had to, you know, you're now in the, in the main seat. so you've done great this year. I've been keeping up with you. Obviously we've got players in your program and got to see you a couple of weeks ago. But for those that don't know, give me your pitch on South Kent, what the school is like, and then give me a pitch on, you know, why we should look at you as a basketball pro.
Craig Carter (33:05)
First, I'll talk about the school because I think the school does a really good job of helping me do my job. We have a super dedicated staff of people here who are dedicated to every student having a great experience, right? They're very caring and very patient.
And so it makes my job easier, right? They're very loving here. But that we also have standards and we have a lot of things that are built in to being a great community member that I think help young men further their development, right? Outside is just a sport that they're playing, right? We have big time hockey, big time soccer here as well. We have a golf program. So we have a lot of different things for guys to get involved in. But.
The main thing is the development of young people to be able to grow and be their best selves when they leave here. Right. And so that's how I coach them. I took my guys to a game at Fairfield the other day and I didn't take them there just to go have fun. And maybe they can see some girls and hit on some college girls. They weren't having shot with, but more so so that they can see how the game is played at that level. Right. It's not even the highest level, but it's a high level, right? It's very competitive. And one of the things that came out of it, they were like, coach, they play like we play.
Cory Heitz (34:09)
Yes.
Craig Carter (34:17)
Exactly. So if you're playing like the college team now, when you get to college, all you need to learn is how they do things there, but you have the blueprint already. Right. And so if you embrace this, if you trust, like my, my motto is TAB trust and believe, right. I always feel like we always eat a lot together. Right. And my motto is, well, everybody has to pay their portion of the tab. Everybody has to give me
a portion of their trust and their belief that everything that I'm doing, whether you agree with it or not, is for the development of you personally. And then more importantly, this program and the team. Right. So I ask everybody to pay that portion of the tab every day and paying your tab means just being your best self, being dedicated to your body, being dedicated to this team, being dedicated to your craft. Right. And then I'm going to put you in positions and practice and in the games to help you look the best you can. But I need you to pay that portion of the tab, right. That trust and belief. And that's
That's the only person I ask you to pay. I'm not asking you to give me any money or anything like that. Just your trust and your belief that even on the days where you don't think I'm being very funny with my bad old man jokes, or you don't like the drills that I'm running, or you're tired, that you trust and believe that what I'm asking you to do is going to help you build for the things you told your parents you wanted at the end. And then we just go about our day that way.
Cory Heitz (35:38)
Yeah, love it. Now for post-grads, what's the academic situation like? Can they take electives, AP classes, college courses?
Craig Carter (35:44)
You take elective mostly.
We have a program with Syracuse University where you can get college credits as well. It's called super classes. So they're college level courses that
several years has done a really good job of training some of our teachers here to teach and then so they can come out of here with college courses. And most of them only take maybe one to two classes a day. So you have your day freed up, right? For the most part to maximize, right? Add into your bag, right? Whether it be watching film, lifting weights, getting the gym, working on your skillset. You know, I have a great young coach and Steve Johnson, who does a really good job in this area of being one of the, most sought after trainers. my, my other assistant, Mark Bass, his coach for over 20 years.
Cory Heitz (36:12)
Cough
Craig Carter (36:24)
on Division 1 level, played and coached at St. Joe's. It's probably better than me at this whole thing. And so I wanted to hire somebody who could see some things that I couldn't see and give a certain level of expertise to help our guys feel comfortable about making this jump and making this investment. And so it'll be their job, especially as post-grads, to take advantage of all of that knowledge and how to when they're here.
Cory Heitz (36:49)
Yeah, one of questions my families have when they're talking to different coaches like yourself is what do you do in terms of development for me, right? During my time there. So give us your pitch on that. Like I show up in August, like what am I to expect from either you or your assistants as far as individual or group training goes.
Craig Carter (37:05)
Right. So I'll detail a day out. Right. So we'll have, and especially in the preseason, we'll have early morning workout. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we'll lift. Right. And we'll lift these groups. Right. Because we'll have 30 some of our kids. So I can't have 30 guys in the gym at the same time. So I'll break them into our sessions. One from six to seven and one from seven to eight. Right. And then my younger guys who I feel like need.
maybe some more on-court development, they'll just work out on the court from seven to eight, right? And so the guys on either my prep team or development team will be in the weight room. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we'll do weights in the morning. Tuesdays and Thursdays, we'll do more conditioning, more core workout type stuff, and maybe a light lift. And then on those days, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we'll have open gym.
And then on Saturday, we also have an open gym for coaches to come to. But on the days we don't have open gym, we'll have group workouts, right? We'll have an open workout, skill set workout, right? And so we'll also play some, but those days are for me to plant the seed of certain dribbling drills, shooting drills, team, you know what I'm saying, drills, right? To dictate how we want to play and what the right way to play is. And so that goes from say,
That's the early morning workouts. We work out from three to five every day as a team and or open gym. But throughout the day, if you're a post grad, when you have a free period, you're allowed to go back into the gym and go work out. Right. And then we eat at five, eat from five to seven. After you eat, we have check-in for everybody has to check in from at seven 30 and then from seven 45 to nine 15, you're allowed to get involved in clubs or whatever, or you can go back in the gym. One of my coaches would be in the gym and they're working out with you as well.
9 15 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we have something called perch because we know we have really kids here and they like to eat again. And then so they come in and eat. And then after that, 10 o'clock, you got to go check in at your dorm. 10 30 lights out. And that's end of the day. Then we rinse and repeat and do it again the next day. So there's plenty of time in a day for you to get workouts in, right? For you to get extra shots up, for you to work out with one of your teammates. Right. And all of that stuff adds up. All right. Because I always tell kids when I was recruiting them and when I recruit them for here,
You're never going to have a coach tell you you dribbled the ball too well or you make too many jump shots.
And it doesn't take an hour. It takes a half hour of really focused reps to get better. I was never a kid that could spend an hour and a half in the gym. I get bored. I want to play, but I can shoot for a half hour and I made sure I'm a suit 10 shots from seven spots and I'm a track it every day and I'm gonna get better in that corner. If I was four for 10 today, tomorrow I got to at least be five for 10, right? Or at least I got to be four for 10 and I can't be three for 10. Right. Cause then I'm going backwards and that doesn't make sense. And so
Cory Heitz (39:30)
Yes.
Craig Carter (39:55)
Being able to plant those workout seeds, right? Those accountability seeds day in and day out, or what we try to do here. Some people it works for, right? You know, it's human nature, right? Some kids take advantage of it, some kids don't, right? And then those kids that don't are here in March complaining, Coach, you didn't do enough for me this day and the third. then when I say, you slept the day away every day. What was I supposed to do? You wanted me to come make you, right? So there's a part of that too, right? I'm learning there's going to be some kids that I have to make.
Cory Heitz (40:18)
Yes.
Craig Carter (40:24)
to protect them from themselves. And that's gonna be another thing that we do to identify those type of kids as well.
Cory Heitz (40:30)
I love you said quality over quantity, 30 minutes. If you do it right, that's all you need. So thank you for saying that. I'm glad I'm not the only one. Yeah.
Craig Carter (40:32)
Yes. Yes, I argue with people about that all the time. I'm like,
I could sit there and shoot for an hour and a half and it can be the wrong shot every day and never get better as opposed to if I tell myself I'm a focus for a half hour and get these really shots up, I can be really good faster. But, you know, it'll be a debate I have with people forever.
Cory Heitz (40:53)
Right. Talk to me on this about your second team. you know, lot of families I talked to, they might not be slam dunked to be on the main team. Right. So what do you say to kids that are like, well, if I come there, what team am I going to be on? And then what's your pitch for your second team? Cause you know, everyone wants to play in the main team for you. Walk me through your angle.
Craig Carter (41:11)
Well, my angle is I always tell people you dictate to me what team you're going to be on. Right now, that's twofold. You can be on the top team, but if you only play five to 10 minutes, especially if you're younger, right? Does that help you? Right. I understand perception is reality. Right. So I had a bunch of guys who were juniors, right? They would on the fringe, right? Of being on that top team. But if you only play five minutes a game,
You don't have enough film and you're not really building and developing as fast as if you played 20, 25. So here, stay on development. There's still a chance to move, right? There's no rule that says you can't move up, right? Everybody mix and matches their teams, right? Injury happen, things of that nature. But I need you to focus in and use this opportunity to get better faster because you're playing more minutes, right? And so that's my pitch, but my pitch is always in September when we have Open Gym.
Nobody's on a team yet. All right. So if you really want to be on that prep team, right. And you feel like, all right, I got to beat Cory out for this spot. Well, beat Cory out. Make me have a hard decision to make. I want you to do that. Right. And then I want you to understand when I do make the decision, I have no...
favorites here, right? Everybody gets the same talking to when they get here, right? Now I also have to build a team, right? So if I put a 6'11 guy on my top team, right? And I don't put the 5'11 guy on that team. And you say, well, coach, he can barely run and jump. I say, yeah, but he's 6'11.
Right. So if I get him to get seven rebounds a game and he's young, right, he can build faster in that regard. Right. So it's but most of the times I never talk to other people about other guys situations. Right. That's not fair to them. And it doesn't really matter. Right. You know, comparison is a thief of joy. You have to just worry about your situation. And like I said, our.
Our development team, I am hoping, and I think I've gotten some really good interest that our development team is going to be super competitive as well. And so as much as it might be our development team, when people come in and say, well, Craig, what are you going to do? You always got to say, my development team is going to play against Katz and Newman and Newhampton, right? And Husak and all these others and Darrow. So, you know, pick your poison, right? And then we got stuff on film and people look at it like, well, Craig, can he play? He can really play.
He just has to be over there so he can get more minutes. So now I can send you this film so you can take them there, right? And so, that's where the trust and belief has to come in, right? Where you know, day in, day out, I've been working and yeah, I didn't make this top team, but I got a real opportunity to really make a difference and make an impact on the development team. Win a ton of games, right? What's happening now is a bunch of schools in our league, St. Thomas More, some other schools that want to put together.
Cory Heitz (43:40)
Yeah.
Craig Carter (44:05)
For lack of a better word, like another double-A type league where even at end of the year, we have a round robin full of games and maybe a champion for those development teams, right? Who don't have an opportunity to do that. So now we got some other coaches coming out and watching that as well. We weren't able to do it this year only because of the timing of it all, because they did that at the last minute and we're on break. And I can't ask families to then find, know.
invest in playing tickets to come back for two days and then take them back home and then bring them back for break, right? That's just, you know, as much as of an opportunity as it would be, that's just a little bit must ask.
Cory Heitz (44:40)
Yeah, makes sense. Last big question. What's it take to be a guard at the D1 level?
Craig Carter (44:45)
Ooh, decision making. IQ and decision making, right? Because that's the hardest thing and people try to teach it, but that's the hardest thing to get on the fly. Right. And so you have to as a guard, I have to be making my decision before I catch the ball. I got to know.
All right, defensively, they're all going to rotate to a certain spot. So I know when he rotates here, if he back cuts, he has that, right? Well, I know this ball screen is happening. So I'm going take one dribble to my left because the ball screen is coming on his, on my right to his left. And I set that up so I can get downhill. And when the big doesn't hedge properly, I can attack him. And now I got to make a read in the backside of it, right? It's all about reads now. And so I try to tell young men that I recruit, you are no longer a fan of basketball. You are basketball professional.
And when you watch basketball, have to watch basketball for the why. Don't watch ooh, John Moran, don't, right? Watch, well, how did he get downhill and why did he get downhill and what actions did they run?
Okay, that's sort of like what we do. Okay, I got to implement that, right? Why am I throwing the ball to the guy in the shake behind the ball screen? Because his guy came off him and had to tag the roller. If he tags the roller, then it should go to the jumper. If you're shooting that jumper, you got to be ready to shoot it. You got to gauge how much space they have and how much time you have to shoot it. And so because the game is being played fast, dribble handoffs, get downhill, trying to have the ball change sides to the floor, catching it and then trying to make a decision, you're already
four seconds behind. And so to play guard at the D1 level, you obviously have to have skill, right? You got to be able to dribble the ball both hands. You to be able to make an open jump shot to keep people honest.
but you have to be somebody who plays with a high level of IQ. And that's at any level of D1. I don't care where you're playing. You can be at, no disrespect to any of these schools, you could be at LIU Brooklyn, right, or Kentucky. The reads are the same. Basketball is basketball. Now the athleticism, right, across the board and all that other stuff, you know, dictates different level. But the things that, you know, John Shire is asking his guards to do, Rod Strickland is asking his guards to do the same thing.
It's just what it is.
Cory Heitz (46:58)
Love it. Thanks for sharing that. We're to finish up some quick hitters here. right. Best player you ever played against.
Craig Carter (46:59)
No, no, no problem.
Okay. Okay.
Ooh, that's tough. Can I give a couple? Is that all right? In high school, I'll say Lloyd Daniels. I was just talking about him the other day. Sweet Pea, I played with him. He's also from Brooklyn, from my area, and against him. Probably one of the most complete basketball players that I've ever played against in my life.
Cory Heitz (47:12)
Sure.
Craig Carter (47:34)
But like I said, I've been blessed enough to work out and play against a ton of people who are really great ballplayers. I'll also say Walt Williams who played at Maryland. He's another guy who was a six foot eight point guard at Maryland. I was like, man, this dude is crazy. This is tremendous. I I played it against Notre Dame. I played against David Rivers.
I played, we played Utah. mean, I played BYU, so we played against, you know, big kids, Sean Bradley. You know what mean? So I was, like I said, basketball has been great. know, mean, Blue Harvey at St. John's, you know, Mark Jackson, when I used to work out against, I played, I've been able to play against a ton of great players over the years. And so, so yeah, that's, mean, I there wasn't one, but sorry about that, but it was bust. Yeah.
Cory Heitz (48:13)
Okay. How
about in college at the D1 men's level, who's the best player you coached against?
Craig Carter (48:20)
Ooh.
Cory Heitz (48:22)
I could just put on
a performance and you guys couldn't stop them.
Craig Carter (48:24)
That's a tough one. Because I know all my coaches that I played, I coached for, wanted to say we had a great game plan for all those guys. I'm trying to think. would had to be in the Big East when I was there because it was tough. The Big East was crazy. It's probably those Rick Pitino, Louisville teams. I mean, across the board.
I don't know if we had anybody just have a have a night against us. I will say and he does a good job with his social media presence. Malcolm Grant, you know, came into the rack when I was coaching at Rutgers and had a day, you know, I mean, shot them back into the game. But but it was I mean, Lance Stevenson and Cincinnati played really well against us in the garden once. I mean, Kemba Walker.
who I tried to recruit at Rutgers and had a great relationship with his family. He had a day against us. So I mean, there was some great, great players in that Big East. teams out of Pitt, Pitt was really tough. mean, Duvon Blair and those guys. So yeah, it was a fun time being an assistant coach in the Big East and on different levels, other places as well.
Cory Heitz (49:41)
Love it. It's your favorite movie of all time.
Craig Carter (49:43)
Ooh. Depending upon the genre, I'm a big Eddie Murphy fan, so boomerang. But I'm also a sci-fi nerd, right? So I love Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and Marvel, Avenger movies and all that kind of stuff. But if I had to pick one movie that I was going to watch over and over again, it's probably boomerang, definitely.
Cory Heitz (50:08)
Okay.
When you're not coaching or watching boomerang, are your hobbies?
Craig Carter (50:12)
Ooh, right now I'm trying to get back in track on my Peloton to get some more workouts in. I am a big movie guy, so I love to go to movies with my grandson and my daughter. I like to go out and I'm big music person, so I'm trying to get to more concerts, you know, as I get a little bit older and, you know, have some more fun that way. And I'm trying to become a much better golfer.
I love the golf and I've been able to meet some people out here who have access to some golf stuff that have been really generous to let me get on courses out here, which has been great. So I would probably put golf out there first. If I have some time in between coaching and recruiting and being dean of students here, I'm trying to get to a golf course somewhere, either the range or go play a quick nine or 18 if I could.
Cory Heitz (51:01)
Love it. Is there anything we did not touch on that you want to mention before we go?
Craig Carter (51:05)
Um, no, not really just that, uh, you know, I want, um, young people to be encouraged to fail. Um, my daughter, my grandsons are going to be 13 in two weeks and, uh, she asked all of the men in our family to come up with some advice. And the one thing I wanted to give him was failure is when the greatness is happening and don't be afraid to fail.
And so when you get to and I like to speak to an existence, whoever's watching this, when you get to South Kent, they're going to be a lot of days where you think you're failing. That's when you're really growing. Embrace it. Lean on somebody. Lean on me. Lean on my coaching staff. Lean on your parents, your brother, your friends to help you get through to the next day. But never be afraid to fail. Right. Because that's when you're going to grow and you're going to learn some things about yourself. And then you're going to look back and say, if I had quit, I was this close to my
dream if I had quit back then, but I'm glad I didn't quit.
Cory Heitz (52:08)
Love it. Love it. Well, Coach Craig Carter, head coach at South Kent School, thank you so much for joining us today.
Craig Carter (52:13)
No problem, Cory. Thank you for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.
Cory Heitz (52:16)
Yeah, if you guys enjoyed this, be sure to subscribe on YouTube. Go to our website, prepathletics.com, sign up for the newsletter to make sure you don't miss anything going on in the prep school world. And if you're interested in anything about the prep school game or the recruiting world, feel free to reach out to me. I get back to everybody and appreciate you tuning in. Until next time, thanks for joining us in the Prep Athletics podcast. Take