David Carter insists that he didn’t set out to create the University of Southern California-Reno Wolf Pack.
Honest.

“It just kind of happened that way,” the Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball coach said.

There is a definite L.A. Story feel to this Wolf Pack basketball team.

Three of the five Wolf Pack starters — point guard Deonte Burton, shooting guard Malik Story and small forward Jerry Evans — played high school basketball in Southern California. Four of the first five Pack players off the bench — Devonte Elliott, Jordan Finn, Jordan Burris and Kevin Panzer — also hail from Bakersfield to Mission Viejo.

“It wasn’t a conscious thing,” said Carter of his So Cal Pack.

Whether it was conscious, deliberate or mere coincidence, one thing is clear. Ever since Carter, who was schooled at Crenshaw High in Los Angeles, has had to find players after being named the Pack’s head coach in the spring of 2009, he has found himself going back home more often than not.

“It just happened that Southern California became a hotbed for us,” said Carter, who won two state titles at Crenshaw in the mid-1980s. “It never happened that we said one day, ‘Let’s go to Southern California and get players.’”

But that’s exactly what happened.

Since Carter came to Reno in 1999, the Pack has gone shopping for talent in Southern California on a regular basis. Chad Bell, who is now a Carter assistant coach, Kevinn Pinkney, Kyle Shiloh, Kirk Snyder and Matt Lagrone come to mind. But since Carter took over the program, they have done their So Cal shopping in bulk. And Carter’s 500-mile basketball pipeline from southern California to northern Nevada has paid off in a big way.
The Wolf Pack is 22-4 and seemingly on its way to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2007. And they couldn’t have done it without the So Cal Seven.

Carter’s So Cal Kids have accounted for 64% of the points, 73% of the assists, 63% of the steals, 43% of the rebounds, 89% of the 3-pointers, 61% of the field goals and 64% of the successful free throws the team has accumulated so far this season. Carter depends on them greatly, giving 62% of the minutes so far to his Southern California natives.

“We just thought all those players would be good pieces to add,” Carter said. “They gave us what we were looking for at the time we recruited them.”

The Wolf Pack’s So Cal players are as diverse as their homeland, an area that gave us both Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg.

Burton runs the show from the point and is averaging 14.9 points and 4.3 assists. Story plays with ice water in his veins and scores at a 14.7 clip and has drained 74 3-pointers. Evans does a little bit of everything (6.7 points, 4.7 rebounds) and Panzer, Elliott, Finn and Burris are the heart and soul of the Pack bench.

“We play with a lot of heart and commitment,” said Evans, when describing the typical Southern California player.

And they learned it all in the land of Mickey Mouse, movie stars, beaches, bikinis, the endless highways and Hollywood.

When asked to describe L.A. basketball in one word, Evans didn’t hesitate.

“Competitive,” he said. “You play against your friends almost every night. There’s a lot of talent on every team.”

Friends off the court, that is. On the court is another story.

“It’s a struggle,” Evans added. “You have to compete.”

One reason Carter is probably more comfortable recruiting in Southern California is because he knows those players inside and out. He knows what motivates them, what they’ve been through He can trust what he sees in Southern California because he’s been there himself.

“It’s about your rep for those kids,” Carter said. “Those kids go up against so many talented players game after game, guys are constantly trying to outdo one another. It brings out the best in all of them. You watch games down there, you see how kids compete. You can see which kids are out there playing for themselves or playing for their teammates.”

The one characteristic that defines all of the Carter’s Southern California kids, as well as the rest of the roster, is that they are all unselfish no matter how much talent they bring to the floor. But none of them are also afraid to step into the spotlight when called upon.

“When you play down there you have to have a chip on your shoulder,” Carter said. “And you have to carry that with you in every game.”

Evans went to Leuzinger High in Lawndale, a school whose athletic teams are known as the Olympians because the school opened right before the opening of the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

“Most of us play on the edge,” Evans said. “We all feel like we have something to prove.”

That’s that chip on their shoulder.

“We don’t feel like we get a lot of respect,” said Story, who is from Pasadena. “When we play teams from out of the area, like from the Midwest, they think we’re soft, that we can’t play.”

That unfair reputation started long before Carter played at Crenshaw.

“People from other areas still see us as soft,” Carter said. “LA was always a hotbed for basketball but people didn’t really respect our players. They thought we weren’t tough.”

Carter, whose Crenshaw High produced standout athletes like Ellis Valentine (baseball), Marques Johnson (basketball), Darwin Cook (basketball), Wendell Tyler (football), Kevin Ollie (basketball) and Darryl Strawberry (baseball), knew better.

“We have a different type of toughness,“ Carter said. “It’s a mentality of toughness and confidence.”

It’s that Southern California mentality of toughness and confidence that Carter loves to have on his Pack basketball teams.

“These kids today, they aren’t afraid of anybody,” Carter said. “It’s not like when I played. Back when I played, we just heard about great players from other parts of the country. We hardly ever played against them or even saw them. These kids, they all play against great players growing up in AAU ball. Teams travel a lot more now than they did when I played.”

“It’s all about AAU ball,” said Evans of the huge influence of summer basketball in Southern California. “That’s where it starts. That’s where you get your reputation.”

“These kids know how they stack up,” Carter said. “They’ve seen it all.”

That’s probably why when Carter went looking for a point guard after the 2009-10 season he went to Southern California. Burton, now a sophomore, has started at the point from the very first game of his freshman year.

“I think LA players are mentally tough,” said Burton, who went to Centennial High in Compton. “We can handle anything.”

The common denominator with the Pack’s Southern California basketball fraternity is, of course, Carter.
The Pack head coach, Burton said, is the main reason he’s even in Reno right now.

“I knew he went to Crenshaw,” Burton said. “That played a big part in my decision to come here.”

“Having Coach Carter here was huge for me because I knew he went through the same things I went through growing up,” Story said. “I knew I could relate to him.”

The transition from Southern California to northern Nevada has been a step-by-step process for all of the Wolf Pack Southern California transplants. You can almost see them grow more comfortable as they allow their personalities on and off the court to emerge more and more with each passing game.

Burton, for one, has allowed his personality to flow this year.

“I probably have a LA Deonte and a Reno Deonte,” Burton smiled.

LA Deonte, he says, is the one that takes over games in the final minutes, the one who isn’t afraid to throw up a crucial shot with the clock ticking away. L.A. Deonte is the one who hits that big shot, yells at his teammates to get them fired up and the one that starts to swagger and plays to the crowd.

“When I get in those moments, sometimes I feel like it’s high school all over again,” Burton smiled. “When I get in those moments, I just snap. I go back to how it was in high school. Yeah, that’s definitely my LA Deonte coming out.”

Carter loves it when the LA swagger and confidence comes out of his So Cal kids. It shows him they are having success on the court, enjoying themselves and feeling more comfortable with their new northern Nevada surroundings.

“Those kids like to show emotion and I don’t have a problem with that,” Carter said. “When you play this game you have to show emotion. It’s not good to bottle it up. It’s a way of expressing yourself, a way of saying, ‘OK, I‘m getting the job done. I refuse to lose this game.’ I see Deonte get in those moments and I know he’s at his best.”