Meet Alcoa star Jahvin Carter's freshman sidekick who's a force in TSSAA basketball tournament
Tom KreagerMURFREESBORO – Jahvin Carter has a new offensive sidekick this year in the TSSAA boys basketball state tournament for defending Class 2A state champion Alcoa. But a gold ball trophy remains the goal.
Alcoa cruised to the TSSAA Class 2A state semifinals Thursday with a 74-40 rout of surprise quarterfinalist East Nashville at Middle Tennessee State's Murphy Center.
Alcoa freshman Jamir Dean led all scorers with 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting. He entered the game as the Tornadoes' third-leading scorer averaging 11.2 points a game. Carter, the TSSAA's Class 2A Mr. Basketball, finished with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting.
"Jamir has been awesome around the rim the entire year," Alcoa coach Ryan Collins said. "That's who he is. He's great off the ball ... With that said, for him to go 2-for-3 from the 3-point line is some added value.
"I think he's been at his best in the biggest moments. For a freshman, that's hard to say that about him."
Alcoa (24-13) plays the Cannon County-Ripley winner at 5:30 p.m. Friday. East Nashville (15-10) reached the state tournament two years removed from winning the Class 2A championship. East Nashville's state tournament appearance came in a year where the Eagles played primarily one senior along with sophomores and a a couple freshmen. There isn't a junior on the roster.
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Dean's emergence comes in a year when Alcoa replaces Brandon Winton Jr. Winton moved to Alcoa from IMG Academy during the second half of the 2022-23 basketball season. He was a key cog in Alcoa winning its first state championship since 1967.
Winton, though, did not play basketball this season because he enrolled early at South Florida, where he's a freshman wide receiver.
Enter Dean.
"I feel like it's kind of the same thing with Brandon," said Carter, a Penn State signee. "Jamir and I grew up together. That's like a little brother. When he was coming up and I knew he was about to be a freshman, I took him under my wing. As the games have been going on, he's taking a bigger role in every game."
Dean said he's listened to Collins' coaching throughout the season, soaking everything in as he improves.
"Whenever coach asks me to go get a bucket, I'll go get a bucket," Dean said. "I've been working on my shot lately too. So, I've been getting better with my shot also. I'm good around the rim."
As important as Dean's offensive development has been for Alcoa's playoff run, Carter is key for the Tornadoes' state championship hopes. Carter showed that in the first 14 seconds when he connected on a deep 3-pointer. Eighteen seconds later he threw down a dunk off a fast break.
And Alcoa was off to the races.
"Let me tell you, (Carter) is a tough, tough player," East Nashville coach Avery Patton said. "You are trying to motivate a 14-year-old kid to stay with this guy. They see social media and they see all of this about him. You are trying to get kid to stay with this guy and the first time he shoots a 35-foot shot out there and we're down 3-0.
"... It's not just him. They've got pieces. They've got some players."