Las Vegas Sun

By Taylor Bern

Fri, Jul 3, 2015 (2 a.m.)

Sitting out as a redshirt meant Ben Carter’s games were UNLV’s practices. Transferring back to Las Vegas from Oregon required the Bishop Gorman High grad’s biggest impact to come during days in the Mendenhall Center rather nights at the Thomas & Mack Center, so that’s what he did.

Multiple times throughout the year Rebels coach Dave Rice pointed out that Carter, a 6-foot-8 junior forward, was consistently out-rebounding and out-hustling some of the guys UNLV leaned on during its disappointing 18-15 season. But like another Rebel, leading scorer Rashad Vaughn, an injury ended Carter’s season in February.

The difference is Carter’s original injury, a pair of fractures in his lower back, begat more issues that required surgery. Now he’s entering his fifth month almost entirely away from the court and the best-case scenario doesn’t clear Carter until September.

“It’s been the hardest stretch of time in my life, because basketball is my love,” Carter said Thursday at Mendenhall. “It’s something I’ve been doing since kindergarten and I’ve never taken this much time away from the game.”

The absence has come with some obvious side effects, namely dropping Carter from the strongest he’s ever been to the weakest he’s felt since early in high school. What it hasn’t done, minus a bad day here or there, is chip away at his resolve.

Even if Carter’s ready to fully participate in practice and weight sessions in September, he would have only until November to get ready for the start of the season. If that doesn’t seem long enough to get back into shape, don’t bother trying to convince him.

“Whether that is enough time, I’m going to make it enough time,” Carter said. “I’m extremely confident in my work.”

So is Rice, who originally recruited Carter out of Gorman before landing him on the transfer market.

Before the question was even finished Rice was emphatic that yes, UNLV will be a press-heavy team this year. For that and other areas of their uptempo plans the Rebels need depth, they need versatility and they need guys to make good decisions that help teammates. Basically, they need guys to play like they saw Carter play in practice last season.

“He’s going to accept whatever his role is, that’s just the kind of player and kind of guy he is,” said Rice, who highlighted Carter’s consistent effort, good screening and high basketball IQ.

Carter’s age and no previous back problems are in his favor, too. At only 20 years old, Carter is almost exactly two years younger than former Rebel Demetris Morant despite both of them graduating in Gorman’s class of 2012.

Carter’s problems started during a normal non-contact moment in practice before a road trip in mid-February. He spun, went up for a shot and landed on two feet to a sudden and surprising pain in his back.

Tests revealed the fractures and the plan was 6-8 weeks of rest. Time went by, Carter’s back healed and he was cleared to practice, but one light workout left him sore in new areas.

More tests revealed Carter had a bulging disc that was putting pressure on nerves, including the sciatic nerve, and sending shooting pain down his legs. A regimen of rehab and a couple of pain management shots weren’t solving the issue, so Carter went to Dr. Thomas Dunn for microdiscectomy surgery.

It’s a relatively minor procedure — Carter went home the same day — that uses a nearly 2-inch incision to remove a small piece of bone impinging the nerve. The surgery was five weeks ago and during the first four weeks afterward Carter was instructed to do a whole lot of nothing.

“I’ve had to just shut it down and not be able to do anything because you really only have one back,” Carter said.

Last week he was cleared to start light rehab with Scott Pensivy, a well-known physical therapist who has worked with the likes of Wayne Gretzky and also helped Las Vegas High grad Ray Smith recover from his ACL tear last year. The work will get more intensive as the weeks go by but Carter doesn’t expect to get back on the court until August and the full recovery time is about three months.

Carter thinks being back in Vegas, with family and longtime friends close at hand, has helped keep him motivated. More than that, though, is the loaded depth chart in which he has every intention of being a key figure.

“We have youth, we have experience, we have shooters, we have size and we’re extremely athletic,” Carter said. “I think that all goes well with how we want to play this year and the tempo at which we want to play.”

It won’t be easy and any further setbacks would obviously be problematic. Some of the road to recovery will be out of Carter’s hands. The rest he plans to control like another one of UNLV’s practices so he can finally get back to the real games.

“I’m excited for the challenge,” Carter said. “… I know how big of a year this is not only for myself but for my team. I know in order for us to be successful I need to be healthy.”

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.

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