Penn State Basketball: Tony Carr completes first year of pro ball
Former Penn State basketball star Tony Carr finished out his first year of pro ball as a winner, playing for Pallcanestro Cantu.
A change of scenery benefitted former Penn State basketball guard Tony Carr and Pallacanestro Cantu. Carr moved teams in late February and helped Cantu finish the year with a winning record at 16-14, closing out the season with a record of 7-5 while Carr was on the roster. The team missed the playoffs by two spots but finished the year strong nonetheless and stayed in the playoff hunt with Carr.
He left his original team, Auxillium Torino, who ended the year 6-24 and was relegated, so the move got the Penn State guard into a better situation. Carr played in 10 of those contests and recorded a solid first year of professional basketball.
Carr averaged 31 minutes with Cantu in his season and compiled 10.0 points, 5.3 assists, 3.8 rebounds per game against 2.5 turnovers per game. His distribution no doubt was the biggest positive of the season. He notched at least three assists in every game he played in and five or more assists in five of those games, including 12 in the season finale.
However, his scoring game went through struggles at times. He ended up shooting just 36.7-percent from the field and 29.7-percent from behind the arc. There were times he couldn’t get on the scoreboard, shooting below 40-percent from the field in seven games. But, he made up for it by contributing via assists, rebounds, scoring from the free-throw line and attempting to keep the turnovers fairly low.
The rookie’s offensive game has plenty of time to be tweaked, so it’s far from a worry. Not to mention, his struggles came in spots, not for a full season. He shot the ball much better with his previous team (Torino). He shot around 42-percent overall and 44-percent from behind the arc. Carr finished the year with 26 games played out of a possible 30 in Lega Serie A , averaging 11.7 points per game, 4.0 assists per game, 3.9 rebounds per game, while shooting 40.4-percent from the field.
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His skill set in other areas with the minutes he received is impressive by itself. If he can add more consistent scoring in future seasons, a potential shot at an NBA career is well within his grasp.