Carney filling up hoop for Butler
BUTLER TWP — The blood lines are there. So is the work ethic.
The production on the court? That's off the charts.
Butler junior guard Devin Carney continues to pour shots through the hoop with alarming regularity and accuracy for the Golden Tornado.
Carney recently became the 10th boys basketball player in Butler history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. He hit the milestone in style, stealing the ball on a play at rival Pine-Richland, driving the other way and jamming it home.
“I've coached five of them (Butler 1,000-point scorers) and played with two others,” Butler coach Matt Clement said. “Devin is the purest scorer out of any of them.
“He can drive to the basket, hit the mid-range jumper, pop the 3's ... none of that is by accident. He puts the time and work in on his game that most people just don't do.”
Clement had also coached 1,000-point scorers Ethan Morton, Nate Snodgrass, Tyler Frederick and Bobby Swartwout. He was teammates with Shawn Bellis and Jaron Hilovsky.
Tyrell Sales, Kevin McGarrah and current Butler girls basketball coach Mark Maier round out Butler's 1,000-point club.
Through seven games this season, Carney is averaging 29.5 points per game. He is shooting 85 percent at the foul line (35 of 41) and 59 percent from the floor (75 of 142) with 22 treys.
Carney already has 163 treys in his high career.His improvement has occurred in giant leaps from year to year. After averaging 12.0 points per game as a freshman, Carney averaged 21.2 points per contest last year.“I just want to keep getting better,” Carney said. “I give a lot of credit to my dad for working with me. He spends a lot of time on the court with me, helping to refine my game.”Shelton Carney is a Steubenville (Ohio) High School graduate who went on to play basketball at Robert Morris University. He started in a Northeast Conference championship game that began at midnight at RMU's Sewell Center so it could be televised live on ESPN.Carney also has a younger brother, Donovan, who plays junior high basketball.“I never pushed basketball on my sons,” Shelton Carney said. “They just love the game. Devin is on a court somewhere three times a day.“He leaves high school practice, he wants to go to the Y. We have a lighted outdoor court around the back of our house and we do a lot of work there.”Carney has a cross-over dribble that often ends in a step-back jumper from beyond the arc.“It's almost impossible to defend,” Clement said.That shot came from repetition on the family's home court.“Donovan goes out there with him, so do I,” Mr. Carney said. “Devin can shoot with a hand in his face because he's probably done that a thousand times at home.”Carney is receiving Division I college basketball offers, but is hesitant to broach that subject.“I want to concentrate on our (high school) team right now,” Carney said. “I don't want to dwell on college just yet.”He was a teammate of 2,000-point scorer Morton — the Tornado's all-time scoring leader — for two years and is in his third season of play with teammate Mattix Clement, who also may reach the 1,000-point mark before he's done.All three are guards.Barring injury, Carney will likely finish his high school career with well over 1,500 points and may approach 2,000.“Ethan, myself, Mattix, hitting these numbers and being teammates for so long ... I don't know if any other program has done something like this,” Carney said. “It's special.“We've all helped each other find open shots. We've played together. We can all shoot and the type of offense we run promotes a lot of points in a hurry.”Bellis is second to Morton on Butler's all-time list with 1,466 points. Through seven games this season, Carney's total was 1,086.“Devin is going to finish second on the all-time list,” Clement said. “What impresses me is the way he can create his own shot. He's a tremendous one-on-one player.“This year, he's handling the ball more. His other skills are improving and that's going to make him even more of a scoring threat.”In recalling his own basketball career, Shelton Carney said he was missing two vital elements.“I worked hard to be what I could,” he said. “But I couldn't dribble or shoot. I was a guard who posted up a lot.“Once my kids showed their interest in basketball, I made sure they could dribble and shoot. Devin has far exceeded anything I've ever done on the court.“I'm not surprised. That kid loves the game. His passion for it shows through every day,” he added.
