It isn’t every day that the nephew of a major hip-hop mogul visits your college.
But Georgetown hosted such a visitor over the weekend when Nahziah Carter — Jay-Z’s nephew — visited the Big East school and new coach Patrick Ewing. The athletic 6-foot-7 wing, who is the son of Shawn Carter’s older brother Eric Carter, also tripped to Boston College on Wednesday.
“It’s getting out there, I guess,” Carter told the Democrat & Chronicle in February about his relationship to Jay-Z. “Whenever I go to see my grandmother (Gloria Carter), he’s usually there (in New Jersey).”
He calls him “Uncle J.”
Carter, who is only 17, averaged about 19 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists for Rochester (N.Y.) Bishop Kearney, which went 16-7 and reached the New York Section V Class AA semifinal.
After the former Dayton signee reopened his recruitment when Archie Miller left for Indiana, Carter has relished the second chance to go through the process and keep his options open. He could opt to attend prep school for the 2017-18 season but is now being courted hard by schools like Georgetown, Boston College, Indiana, Washington, Vanderbilt and South Carolina, among others.
Indiana jumped in for 2017 after James Blackmon declared for the NBA Draft.
Did you see Nahziah Carter⁉️ @_ClutchCarter #EYBL pic.twitter.com/eOr4SzEIWo
— Overtime (@overtime) April 23, 2017
“He wants to take his time [with his recruitment],” Jim Hart, Carter’s coach with the Albany City Rocks on the Nike EYBL circuit, told ZAGSBLOG. “When [Miller’s staff] moved he decided he wants to take his time. He’s planning to go to prep school and that’s the plan right now.
“Now he plays AAU two weekends and totally puts college out of his mind. He was going to go in the 2018 class. But then after two weeks of EYBL, as is typically the case, everybody sees him, there’s a bunch of colleges who had guys leave early and this and that and all of a sudden it’s a fullcourt press to get him to go to school this year.”
Hart added: “I think he’s focused on playing summer ball right now and is just taking his time.”
Carter visited Georgetown Saturday-Sunday and also cancelled a visit to St. John’s set for Sunday night-Monday.
“He got to meet all their guys, played a little 3-on-3 and I guess he did really well there,” Hart said of the Georgetown visit. “He loved Patrick [Ewing]. His mom and his dad both went on the visit. His dad’s a big-time Knicks fan, had his Knick hat on there.”
As for upside going forward, Hart said: “He has unlimited upside. If you’re 17 years old, you’re 6-6, you shoot 60 percent two years in a row on the EYBL. He’s a ridiculous athlete, has a 41- or 42-inch vertical. Shoots the ball well. He takes charges.
“Unbelievably quick first step so he can finish in traffic, he can finish over 7-footers. And he can get his shot off any time he wants. He has a mid-range fadeaway so I think with him, it’s more or less getting used to playing with other bigs, other great point guards, spacing on the floor. Right now he doesn’t have a great feel for spacing on offense and some of the things on defense. So when he picks those up, what’s he gonna look like when he’s 19? In two years, I mean it’s scary. He’s really, really, really good.”
