Arizona 5-star commit Carter Bryant is fueled by family support, UA connections

After his Paul George Elite U17 team broke a postgame huddle inside a sprawling Mesa sports facility last month, celebrating a blowout win on the competitive EBYL circuit, Carter Bryant couldn’t even think about leaving the building.

Instead, he rolled into a another huddle. With mom. Friends. Relatives. All on hand, a full day’s drive from Southern California, for a random club-ball game.

About 15 of them in all.

“That’s pretty typical for my family,” Bryant said. “Usually, it’s like a mob wherever I go. I’m definitely grateful for that.”

Then there’s the other half of the family headed by D’Cean Bryant, who also stays long after all of Bryant’s games, having juggled the roles of dad, coach and shuttle driver for years now.

It works. Family works. Connection matters. It’s how Bryant has spent his high school years, making the best of the commute from his hometown of Riverside, California, to play for high school teams his father has coached in Orange County and develop into a five-star recruit.

In some respects, connection is also why Bryant chose last month to become an Arizona Wildcat.

A 6-8 wing forward from the class of 2024 who is loaded with versatility and potential, Bryant described growing up as a Wildcat fan in part because his aunt, Shaquillah Torres, played volleyball at UA and because Bryant built a longstanding relationship with the Wildcat coaching staff.

He took so many recruiting visits to Arizona — three, maybe four, maybe five, Bryant isn’t even sure — that when he showed up to take in the Wildcats’ Selection Sunday celebration at St. Phillips Plaza on March 12, he was all but in. Louisville was the other finalist, Bryant said, but the Cardinals ultimately finished second even with the potential for a bigger NIL payday.

“I was definitely interested in the (UA) program from the very start, but I wanted to pay my due diligence with the coaches and pay the same respect to the coaches who were recruiting me,” Bryant said.

Arizona coaches “push out pros consistently,” he added. “Their weight program, you see a lot of guys put on muscle and weight. They develop over time. So I just felt like it was the best place for me.

“NIL had nothing to do with it. It’s just a matter of where I could be pushed the most and be the best player I can be at the next level.”

Negative into positive

That’s always what he wanted, the way his mother, Sabrina Torres, described it. He wanted to be pushed.

She just had to channel his passion a little.

“The one thing about Carter that he’s had since he was very young is a great work ethic and huge dreams,” Torres said. “He would always ask `If I did this, can I be that?’ He would always continuously ask, at 4 or 5 years old, `You know, mom, do you think if I put in work every day I could be as good as Kobe? Do you think I could be a good as …’ And I would tell him, `You know, son, make a name for yourself, and you can be as good as you want to be. Whatever you put into that role, you get out of it.’ ”

Then, for over a year early in his high school career, Bryant was forced to slow down. While colliding with another player as he went up for a dunk as a freshman in 2020-21, Bryant broke his tibia and fractured the growth plate in his left leg.

His recovery path was long. But at least it was a path.

“After the surgery, the first thing I asked was if he could go back to play basketball,” Torres said. “Once we were told that he would be able to play basketball, I knew it would be OK.”

Bryant took care of the rest, guided by a family of athletes who could see the long view.

Before he became the head coach at Fountain Valley (Calif.) High School, D’Cean Bryant was an assistant coach for Orange Lutheran, where he worked with former Arizona guard Gabe York, and before that as an assistant at Riverside’s King High School, where he worked with future NBA standout Kawhi Leonard.

As a player, D’Cean logged 114 games over four seasons for Long Beach State in the 1990s. He’s been through it and worked with others who have. He knew what his son needed to do.

“I think there was an understanding of, `I know what my son can be, I played at the college level, my brother played at the college level,’ “ said Matt Moreno, a Southern California-based analyst for Rivals. “I think there was that element of ... there’s no need to rush him back, because I think they understood what he can be.”

So instead of going hard in the gym during those careful months, D’Cean said, Carter used the time off the court to work on his mental approach, to the game and life, making sure to take care of sleep and nutrition.

Healing, saving, growing

He also managed to build up his savings, working basketball camps and other odd jobs, while putting away Christmas money so that he could afford to check out the colleges he was interested in.

Before their junior years in high school — when many elite players have already narrowed down their college choices — players are not eligible to take official visits that schools pay for. So Bryant made his own workaround.

“It’s funny because people don’t realize this: He used his own money to come over on unofficials,” D’Cean Bryant said. “He was like, ‘I’ll pay for my hotel, I’ll give you gas money.’ He was invested. He invested in a lot of different programs and did his research, asked who was who and what they have done, the staffs and so many different things, the community that each program has. That was big for him.”

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Meanwhile, the COVID restrictions of the time also helped in an unexpected way: With his father now joining Black Coaches Association and other meetings via Zoom, Carter simply pulled up a chair.

“He sat in on a lot of those meetings,” D’Cean said. “He heard (former UA and NBA standout) Damon Stoudamire talk. He had conversations with guys like (G League Ignite coach) Jason Hart, (Suns coach) Monty Williams. He was listening in the background and having those conversations. At the same time, he would hear conversations I would have with other players I have been coaching, so he had a chance to sit back and observe.”

By the time Carter’s leg healed and COVID retreated, during the 2021-22 season, he was ready to take off. Slowly, that is. Even while on a minutes restriction that season, he made the All-Sunset League first team as a sophomore at Fountain Valley, already 6-6 with intriguing inside-outside ability at that age. He picked up plenty of interest from high-major programs.

Moreno, who had seen Bryant regularly throughout his career, found it easy to see why Arizona was interested.

“In Orange County, you hear about certain guys at certain times, and he was somebody you heard was coming down the pipeline who was going to be very, very good,” Moreno said. “When you first look at him, you saw, ‘OK, there’s something there.’ You can see the height, the length, everything. I think the aggressiveness is really what’s coming along. I think he feels comfortable in his own skin and who he is.”

This is the (free)way

There was always support along the way. Sometimes, literally on the way. On the freeways between Bryant’s home in Riverside and his high schools, first Fountain Valley and then Sage Hill School of Newport Beach last season.

Carter says it takes about an hour and 15 minutes. Each way. Traffic willing, of course.

A sign-language translator, Torres will drive Carter all the way in on days when she’s assigned work in Orange County; on others, she will often drop him off at a halfway point, where Carter hops into D’Cean’s car for the rest of the journey.

It works. Carter says they all use the time to talk about basketball, school or just life.

“We kind of just have this car system going,” Carter Bryant said. “It teaches you a lot of life lessons for the future, maturity, time management, all that stuff.”

They just have to draw lines sometimes.

“My parents have done a great job separating Dad from Coach,” Bryant said. “It was kind of hard early because we were both basketball heads, and you want to talk as much as possible about basketball. But for us to separate the two and be able to know when we should be talking basketball and when we should just be talking about life in general, we find a great balance.

“And for them to be by my side and push me, it’s just great. You never know how long you’re gonna have your loved ones. So for me to have the opportunity to play for my dad and constantly be around him, that’s a blessing. A lot of people, like a lot of people, don’t get that opportunity. So I just wanted to take advantage of every opportunity I have.”

That’s why it was something of a no-brainer last summer when D’Cean was hired at Sage Hill that Carter followed him. Bryant led the private high school to the Pacific Coast League title and was named the Daily Pilot’s Dream Team Boys Player of the Year.

According to the Daily Pilot, Bryant averaged 22.1 points, 13.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.9 blocks and 1.6 steals per game, collecting 30 points and 24 rebounds in a close playoff loss at Los Angeles Grant.

Since then, Bryant has rejoined the Paul George Elite club team for a ride through the EYBL circuit, averaging 9.1 points and 5.1 rebounds so far on stops in Atlanta and Phoenix last month, then Dallas this weekend.

He is back in the spotlight, but with the burden of his recruitment and his injury both well behind him.

All-around game

Bryant said he actually always felt like he was the best player in the country, whatever the rankings said, no matter his rehabilitation or production at the moment.

“It was just a matter of me executing and showing it every game,” Carter said. “Previously, I was kind of timid, I wasn’t going to the rim. I wasn’t making the right play sometimes. I wasn’t playing the way I should be. As time went on, I was able to get better and put my handprint on the game, affect the game in multiple ways.”

With fellow UA commit Jamari Phillips and four-star guard Jase Richardson also playing with him on PG Elite, Bryant doesn’t have to be the focal point — doesn’t have to do everything as he sometimes has to at Sage Hill.

But D’Cean Bryant says that hasn’t been a bad thing, either.

“I just wanted him to be a basketball player,” D’Cean said. “You have to be able to play defense. If you can’t play defense, you don’t play. You have to have the ability to shoot the ball, dribble the ball, pass it. Those are all fundamental things. Other things will come later on. He’s been working on his footwork. He’s gotten better at a lot of different things.

“I’m glad he’s going to be a Wildcat, because that whole staff is gonna make sure he’s going to develop the right way. I’m excited about it.”

That’s another thing father and son agree on. And the rest of the family, who watched in person or via livestream April 26, when Carter Bryant committed to Arizona from Riverside’s Bobby Bonds Park.

“It definitely feels great,” Carter said two days later of his decision. “It felt like home to me.”