Duke fans are used to screaming about wanting more touches for the big men year in and year out, so yeah, they could've/should've fed him more.

But they did use him in PnR a good amount, showed his ability to operate from the top of the key (his high-low with Marvin Bagley was a highlight EVERY TIME he did it, it was masterful and we should've run it every single play of every single game), showed his footwork down low when fed in the paint. He ran the court well, defended well, blocked well. Even in the zone, he was terrific at the base, and he'd even play on the outside of the zone when Bolden was in, so you could see his feet moving. Everything I'm seeing him do in tweeted highlights, he did at Duke enough to make me know he could do it-- except the constant switching even to guards, but we knew he could switch, it was the other guys who couldn't, so the zone prevented him from really showing his M2M prowess against the better teams.

Teams also did begin to close in on Carter defensively (and Bagley, for that matter) when it was clear our shooters could run cold, so that led to a lot of offense where Trent and Allen were running the show, when really they should've kept finding ways to dump it down low. Which was unfortunate. But there were also games in which he'd singlehandedly dominate-- the reason we lost to Kansas in OT was because he fouled out on some bullshit, because they had NO answer for him down the stretch of that game. He was throwing Duke onto his back.

I also just don't think the "he deferred a lot" narrative should apply as much to young big men who play in the post, tbh. It's a lot more telling when guards and wings defer or disappear. Sometimes big men just aren't being fed the ball enough. Plus I don't really ever fault Wendell for kicking it back out of the post when fed if he didn't like his matchup or saw an open man on the perimeter.

Or, to put it another way, people blamed Grayson for disappearing and Trevon for disappearing this season, but I never once heard a Duke fan bitch about Carter not trying to make a difference out there.