BUTLER TWP — His senior year hasn't even arrived yet and Devin Carney has already established his legacy in the annals of Butler boys basketball.

Sound familiar?

A former teammate of three-time Butler Eagle Player of the Year Ethan Morton, Carney took the spotlight and ran with it this season.

“I believe he's the best pure scorer this program's ever seen,” longtime Golden Tornado assistant coach Jim “Duck” Gallagher said.

Only a junior, Carney led all of WPIAL Class 6A with 29.6 points per game, believed to a Butler single-season record. He scored 622 points this season, sank 65 treys and shot 84 percent from the free throw line.

And he was a unanimous choice for the Butler Eagle's 2020-21 Boys Basketball Player of the Year honor, beating out the likes of Knoch's Ryan Lang, Karns City's Chase Beighley and A-C Valley's Levi Orton.

The latter two broke the all-time career scoring records at their respective schools. Lang averaged 25 points per game.

“I appreciate this recognition,” Carney, a 6-foot-0 guard, said. “It means a lot.”

He meant a ton to the Golden Tornado in helping them reach the WPIAL 6A semifinals. In his first three years at Butler, Carney has played on a WPIAL championship team, runner-up and three semifinalists.

“The scary thing is there's room for him to get even better,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “Devin improved so many aspects of his game this season and he never stops working at it.

“This kid is always working on his game. He stays after practice and shoots. He goes to the YMCA and plays.”

Carney's father, Shelton Carney, played at Robert Morris University. His younger brother is a standout junior high player. They have an outdoors court at their home.

“We've already been out there a few times since the season ended,” Carney said. “The weather's been nice. We go pretty hard at each other.

“We've got a shooting machine on that court and that helps. I know I can improve my game. I want to keep improving my game.”

Carney is being recruited by Vanderbilt, Duquesne, Columbia, Yale, Princeton and Elon, among others. He is unsure of his collegiate destination.

He knows what he wants his high school destination to be.

“We're going to have a great team back here next year,” Carney said. “I think we can make a serious run at another WPIAL championship. I know we're capable of getting there.”

Carney and two of his teammates — Charlie Kreinbucher and Raine Gratzmiller — were key components of that 2019-20 Butler championship team.

When Gratzmiller went down with an ankle injury and missed a few games this year, Carney handled the point guard duties even more than usual.

“The ball was in Devin's hands a lot this year, especially with Raine being out,” Clement said. “That experience helped him.

“He did a great job breaking pressure, making good decisions with the ball. He'll be even stronger in that regard next year.”

Gallagher is impressed by Carney's work ethic.

“You an see how badly he wants it, not only in practice, but on his own,” Gallagher said. “He's put a lot of weight-lifting work in, a lot of conditioning work. It shows on the court.

“He's gotten physically stronger with the ball. He'll play the whole game at times. We'll ask him if he needs a break and he never does. I'm sure he feels tired after the game. During the game, it's all adrenalin.”

Carney enters next season with 1,499 career points. He is already No. 2 on the Tornado's all-time scoring list, trailing only Morton's 2,198. Carney needs 700 points his senior year to catch him.

That's not the chase Carney's most interested in.

“I want to win championships,” he declared.

“Devin is comfortable playing Butler basketball,” Clement said. “He enjoyed this season. I could tell by the smile on his face.

“He not only can get up high, he's a quick jumper. He's liable to pull down 12 rebounds in a game and I don't know how you're gonna guard the kid.

“Next year is going to be fun,” Clement added.