On the surface, Penn State basketball’s first Class of 2024 commit looks like a scorer.
That’s because, well, he is.
Jahvin Carter still has a season left of high school basketball and has already eclipsed 2,000 points.
The Tennessee native is the all-time leading scorer at Alcoa High School and also holds the single-game record, dropping 62 last winter.
But Tuesday night, when Carter told Mike Rhoades and Penn State’s coaching staff via Facetime that he was committing, Carter recalled to Nittany Sports Now that Rhoades told him he “got his point guard that he wanted.”
Carter told NSN that Rhoades is the coach he wants, too, and Penn State’s staff, namely assistants Brent Scott and Jamal Brunt, fit what he’s looking for.
“Coach Mike Rhoades and his staff,” Carter said. “It felt like home. It felt like I fit. (Rhoades) called me every day. He came down last Friday to watch me play three games, all the way from Pennsylvania. He watched my film. He called my coaches, my brother, my mom. It just feels like home. It don’t get better than that.”
Rhoades watched Carter play during a summer live period for Alcoa, and Carter feels he showed the coach what he could do.
“I played solid,” he said. “I played very good. He liked what he saw. He told me the way he runs his offense, I fit perfect, the way I can shoot it. He likes the way I come off screens, and he likes how I create for others.”
Rhoades’ assistant to the head coach in this first season at Penn State is Joe Crispin. Crispin is a Penn State basketball legend who made a name for himself as an offensive mind while being the head coach at Division III Rowan University.
Carter likes the way Rhoades and Penn State plan on handling the guys that play his position.
“He likes to let his guards go,” Carter said. “He likes to let them come off screens and let them work and create for the bigs and for the shooters and stuff like that. He likes crafty, shifty guards that can get to work, and he likes scrappy guards that play defense.”
Penn State offered Carter less than two weeks before he announced his commitment.
Home 🤍💙 110% committed @CoachRhoades @PSUCoachJB @PennStateMBB pic.twitter.com/eMdXlmkt0S
— J🖇H (@JahvinCarter) June 27, 2023
Carter had been pondering his decision for the past few days, talking it over with his family and AAU coach, Bobby Maze of BMaze Elite.
Rhoades called him earlier in the day, and by late evening, Carter was ready to tell Penn State’s coaching staff the good news.
“They were super excited,” Carter said. “They started clapping… it was great.”
Although Carter’s listed as a combo guard by 247Sports, make no mistake, he sees himself playing the 1.
“I’m a PG,” he said. “I can create for others. I can shoot it well. I try to do the little things that just make my teammates better. I’m a great teammate, I feel like.”
Along with his individual success, Carter led Alcoa to its first state championship since 1967 this past March.
Despite all the personal and team glory Carter’s experienced in his high school career, only three schools have offered him– Penn State included.
The other two are Middle Tennessee State and Georgia Tech. Carter has yet to be offered by his home state’s SEC schools, Tennesee and Vanderbilt.
Does this fuel Carter’s fire? A little bit, he says.
But, mainly, it’s irrelevant because Carter feels he’s found his place.
“I feel like when coach Mike Rhoades hit me up and then he came into my process, it just felt right,” he said. “It just felt like that was a blessing God sent, and it was just… it felt like home from the day we started communicating to now.”
Carter said he’d watched a good bit of Penn State’s new point guard, Ace Baldwin. Baldwin is already a college basketball star, winning A-10 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year for Rhoades at VCU last season.
Carter hopes to be a college basketball star, too, but for now, he’s focused on doing what he can to win another state title.
“Our school is a football school. They’ve (won) eight rings in a row. Last year, we won states in basketball, and it was the first time since 1960 something. So we’re trying to build something there.”
As for his message to Nittany Nation, well, it was simple.
“I’m coming,” he said. “That’s my message. I’m coming.”
