San Jose State signs initial spring recruit

Wil Carter.

By the sound of it, this pairing of names could be that of a television/movie star or maybe the confident-sounding moniker of an airline pilot.

In this case, he's a 6-foot-8 basketball player out of Salt Lake City College (SLCC). Coming out of Idaho, Carter played as a freshman for Coach Norm Parrish in 2006-2007 before heading off on his LDS mission. He returned this summer, re-enrolled at SLCC and earned all-Scenic West Conference First Team honors based upon his 12.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Carter shot 49% overall and 75% on free throws while playing just below 23 minutes a contest.

Now, he is headed to San Jose State of the Western Athletic Conference.

What's interesting is that previous SLCC bigs 6-foot-10 Gary Wilkinson and 6-foot-9 Nate Bendall headed to Logan after their tenure in Salt Lake. But the latter pair are centers whereas Carter, according to Parrish, is a four, a power forward with the possibilities of playing some at the three spot. "But he could put 20 more pounds [Carter currently weighs 210] on his frame and still be effective," Parrish said. The SLCC mentor says a comparison to Troy Ostler -- a 6-foot-10, 200-pounder who played backed in the late 1990s for Parrish before heading to Riley Wallace and Hawaii -- is more appropriate.

Continuing on, Parrish offered, "Wil has a really high ceiling. He has the ability to hit the 15-to-18-foot shot. He is also a good rebounder who is fairly long and can run and jump."

There was a mix of colleges in pursuit of Carter, including Hawaii, Boise State, Seton Hall, Wyoming, Pacific, UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge, among others.

Carter is 22.