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PROVO — During his nine years at BYU Dave Rose has done a phenomenal job at coaching certain individual players, most notably Keena Young and Jimmer Fredette.
In his three years at BYU, Young went from a part-timer to the Mountain West Conference MVP as a senior. Lightly recruited out of high school, Fredette became the darling of college basketball four years later as led BYU to its first Sweet 16 appearance in three decades and was named national player of the year.
But both of those two cases pale in comparison to the heavy lifting Rose has had to do with Matt Carlino, the junior guard who has improbably found contentment coming off the bench. The reclamation project has been nothing short of impressive and is largely responsible for BYU’s current five-game winning streak.
The only criticism is it took far too long to reign in a player who was shooting BYU into oblivion.
Carlino’s path to the bench began in BYU’s blowout loss to Utah, which started a four-game losing streak. During that span he made only 13 of 52 shots, bottoming out with a 1-for-7 performance against Pepperdine. Since making Skyler Halford a starter, the Cougars haven’t lost.
And to his credit, Carlino has flourished providing a spark off the bench. At last, he has learned to consistently play under control.
Matt's been playing awesome. I feel like he's making everyone around him better. He's making good decisions in transition. He's getting into our offense and shooting the ball well. When he's playing well, everyone else plays well.
–Tyler Haws
“Matt has made a concerted effort to play better, and he has,” Rose told reporters after BYU beat Santa Clara to move into second place behind Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference standings.
To understand Carlino’s present state, we need to look at his history. It’s a circuitous odyssey.
The son of a former player at Arizona State, Carlino was a basketball prodigy as a youngster. Growing up in the Phoenix area, he caught the eye of legendary coach Lute Olson and was offered a scholarship to Arizona in junior high.
Carlino’s uncle, Brock Brunkhorst, had played for Olson at Arizona (Brunkhorst was an assistant coach at Utah on the Final Four team in 1998). Olson retired before Carlino was at the age to make a college commitment.
As a high school freshman, Carlino started at Gilbert’s Highland High, where his father, Mark, was the coach. He averaged 16.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists and scored at least 30 points in three games.
The following year his numbers were 19.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists. He scored 30 or more points in six games.
Around that time Carlino made an oral commitment to play at Indiana, which was rebuilding under coach Tom Crean. To facilitate a smoother transition to college ball, Mark Carlino and his son moved to Indiana in time for his junior season while other family remained in Arizona.
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Playing for coach J.R. Holmes at Bloomington South, Carlino’s averages dipped to 13.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists. During that time he de-committed from Indiana and decided to graduate high school a year early, a decision his coach did not support.
At the time Holmes told ESPN.com: "I would question anybody who would do this whether they've thought it through all the way through. I told them I thought it was the wrong decision, and it didn't make any difference. I just don't see why you want to rush growing up."
Carlino settled on UCLA, where he lasted one semester before going back on the market. He transferred to BYU in time to watch Fredette shoot his way to the player of the year as a senior in 2011.
In his first college game, Carlino made half of his 14 shots in 24 minutes as BYU lost to No. 6 Baylor in Provo. From that point until recently, he played the role of a shoot-first point guard.
In the five games since being a reserve, Carlino has made 19 of 38 shots and has transformed into a pass-first point guard. His teammates have noticed the difference.
“Matt’s been playing awesome,” guard Tyler Haws after the Santa Clara game. “I feel like he’s making everyone around him better. He’s making good decisions in transition. He’s getting into our offense and shooting the ball well. When he’s playing well, everyone else plays well.”
