Mizzou men’s basketball is casting Noah Carter for a bigger role. ‘He’s ready to step up.’

COLUMBIA, Mo. — A small silver boat trundles across the lake. Red and black stripes line the sides of it, where eight letters and an apostrophe have been stuck on: Noah’s Ark.

Missouri men’s basketball forward Noah Carter is at the helm of this fishing vessel, and this is his domain. He’s happy to share it, bringing teammates out on the water to film video segments that are part interview, part fishing competition. Carter took his second-year coach, Dennis Gates, to Bass Pro Shops for a shopping spree.

“He’s the only recruit to ever ask me, ‘Coach, when I move here, can I bring my boat?’” Gates recalled.

Carter, entering his fifth and final year of college basketball eligibility, also will be at the helm of a Mizzou team looking to build on last season’s surprise success while replacing top-end talent. He’ll have to do so both as a lockerroom leader and as a likely hub on the floor.

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“Noah Carter is the loudest one on our team,” Gates said, which comes as a compliment. Carter’s voice is one Gates wants to hear.

Carter’s lively personality is translating well to his leadership role, even if he’s entering just his second season with the Tigers.

“Noah Carter’s been excellent,” said MU point guard Sean East II, another college basketball veteran. “He’s becoming more of a leader and more of a vocal leader, on and off the court, showing the guys what to do and driving the culture.”

So it’s not just boats that Carter drives. He seems to have fun steering a team’s culture, too.

“I’ve actually really been enjoying just being a leader and being there for the guys, the younger guys,” Carter said. “I want to be like that big brother that if they have any questions, like, just come ask me. I’m here to help you. I’ve really been enjoying being able to get on them as well because I know what they’re capable of.”

As far as what Carter is capable of, well, Gates has high hopes for that. The Missouri coach told reporters he expects Carter, East and guard Nick Honor to be the three anchors of his starting lineup this season.

Carter appeared in 34 games last year, starting 20. He averaged just under 10 points per game and four rebounds, shooting a hair under 50% from the field and 32.2% from 3-point range. At 6 feet 6 and 235 pounds, Carter brings the shooting and mobility to play on the wing but can also guard up in the post.

Some of his growth over the course of last season fueled Gates’ push for increased usage of Carter this time around. During Mizzou’s pressure-packed final eight games of last season, Carter’s scoring output expanded to 11.8 points per game with a 2.3-assist-per-game playmaking punch to go with the buckets.

“He’s a young man who finished the last eight games of our season as one of the most efficient,” Gates said, “but also rebounding … as scouting reports got tougher.”

The number in Gates’ mind is 15 points a game for Carter. There’s precedent for it: In just his third season of college hoops, Carter averaged that tally at Northern Iowa, where he played three years before transferring to MU. That season, Carter was UNI’s second leading scoring, going for 20-plus points in nine games.

Gates kept Carter to about 22 minutes each game last season but expects to use him for roughly 30 minutes per contest this season. The math, as Gates explains it, suggests that a 50% increase in playing time should prompt a 50% rise in scoring, getting Carter to the 15 points per game threshold.

“He has the potential to put the ball in the basket, rebound, but also give us what we need from an experience but also leadership standpoint,” Gates said. “There’s many games that he could have had where he could have definitely got over 30 points and I truly believe his unselfishness and obviously the presence of Kobe Brown kind of made him take the back seat. And I saw an unselfish spirit.”

It’s Brown’s all-SEC, first-round NBA draft pick production that needs replacing, and Carter is the logical first choice to do it.

“That’s what we need throughout the season,” Gates said. “He’s ready to step up and I’m gonna continue to challenge him.”

Carter shouldn’t need to do everything. Mizzou’s 18-deep roster that will complicate the rotation-building part of Gates’ job is full of potential contributors, especially in the scoring and shooting category.

But the plan to increase Carter’s usage looks likely to make him at least one of the Tigers’ on-floor hubs. And that makes him a flashy bit of bait for the big fish of the Southeastern Conference.

“I just want him to understand there’s an expectation of being circled and being the bull’s-eye,” Gates said. “But also there’s an expectation where you can’t get distracted if you don’t get the calls, you don’t get the shooting percentage that you want, you still got to get to the free throw line. You still got to make tough plays. You still got to play both sides of the ball.”

That comes with the journey that’s brought Carter from the Missouri Valley Conference to Missouri, and he’s now one of the faces of the high-spirited Tigers.

“It’s been a grind,” Carter said. “So I’m just trying to soak up every bit of it.”

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