It was just over a year ago that
Antwan Carter was finishing up his college basketball career at Longwood, where he became the school's all-time scoring leader with 1,886 points during his time with the Lancers.
Carter, who grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, had never been outside of the United States until last year, but now the former basketball standout is learning his way around Europe.
A 6-foot-6 player who averaged 19.4 points and 9.1 boards in 2011-12 for the Lancers, Carter is now playing pro basketball in The Netherlands in the city of Weert for Stepco BS Weert.
“The past year was definitely a year to remember. During my junior and senior seasons at Longwood, I averaged 19 points and nine rebounds a game. By doing this, a lot of agents started watching me and wanted to sign me to their agencies,” Carter, who averaged 18.2 points and 9.5 boards as a Longwood junior, wrote in e-mail from The Netherlands in early March.
“I waited until the season was over and I started talking to some of them,” Carter added. “I got a lot of advice about how to choose my agent from Coach Gillian (former head coach Mike Gillian). I chose Jan Lugtenburg as my agent; he is good at what he does. This past summer I got a tryout for Stepco BSW. The head coach, James Meil, came out to see me and now I'm here.”
Meil, an American, is no stranger to Division I college basketball in the mid-Atlantic region. He graduated from Lehigh and was an assistant coach at Towson near Baltimore before he became the head coach at Stepco BS Weert in 2011.
Carter averaged 30.5 minutes, 15.7 points and 8.9 rebounds in his first 31 games with Weert.
He also averaged 1.5 assists and 1.8 steals, and shot 52.3 percent from the field and 70.1 from the free throw line.
On March 19, he had 19 points and nine rebounds in an 84-73 win against Leiden, marking his 14th consecutive game with double-figure points.
Carter had a season-high 18 rebounds on Feb. 16 against Amsterdam and he had a season-high 30 points in a game against Zwolle in October. He has seven 20-point games and 13 double-doubles, while ranking eighth in Dutch League scoring, third in rebounding and sixth in steals.
“The biggest adjustment for me on the court was getting used to playing against older and stronger people,” according to Carter. “I'd say the biggest adjustment off the court was getting use to cooking every single day. I never thought I would miss D-Hall, but I do!”
“Basketball here in Holland is a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be,” he added. “There's definitely a lot of competition in my league. Every team pretty much matches up well against each other. On my team Stepco BSW, we have four Americans including myself. I play the power forward and center positions for my team. I don't think that you could compare the level of play here to the Big South. It's tougher though, definitely.”
His American teammates included former Green Bay Division I players Rahmon Fletcher and Bryquis Perine, who played last season in Hungary.
Another American teammate is Gerald Robinson, who has played in several countries in Europe. He ended his college career in 2008 at UT Martin, the school that Longwood faced on the road in late February in the BracketBusters event.
Some of Carter's opponents in the league this season have included former Radford player Robert Holcomb Faye and Kelvin Martin, who played at Charleston Southern and was the Big South defensive player of the year in 2012.
Carter, like most Americans who play pro hoops in Europe, is provided free housing, transportation, insurance and dental by his host club.
In his free time he watches movies, plays Xbox and travels. Weert is a city of about 48,000 people in the southeast part of the country.
“Life in Holland is good, very peaceful and quiet. There's never too much going on at one time here,” Carter said. “The city I live in, Weert, is nice. It's small, but has a lot of things to do. If we have any problems we usually contact our manager and it gets handled.”
One of the biggest adjustments that former Division I players have to make overseas is going from playing two or three games a week and practicing once a day to practicing two times a day in Europe and playing about one game a week.
“Going from playing two games a week in college to playing one game a week the majority of the time is tough. The biggest difference other than that is practice. With only one game (a week) we have to practice more, but the upside to that is you learn the opponent better,” Carter noted.
Many Americans who head to Europe hope to move up the ranks to countries where the pay and competition is better.
The Netherlands is at the lower end of the pecking order in Europe, where the best and most lucrative leagues are in Spain, Italy, France, Turkey and Russia, among others.
At the very least Carter hopes to travel after this season.
“I really do hope to play overseas next season,” according to Carter. “If I will stay in Holland I'm not sure; the biggest thing to realize is that this is a business. You could be one place one day the next day another. I have seen a few famous places here in Europe. I'm planning a trip to Paris after the season.”
Editor's Note: Special consultant David Driver is a Virginia native and has covered college sports in the state for more than 20 years. He has been a staff writer for newspapers in Arlington, Springfield and Harrisonburg and has contributed to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Washington Post, Stafford County Sun and The Potomac News in Woodbridge. He was also the first sports editor for the daily Baltimore Examiner. He will continue contributing special feature content to longwoodlancers.com throughout the upcoming 2012-13 academic year as well. A former Division III baseball player at Eastern Mennonite University, David can be reached at www.davidsdriver.com.
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