OMAHA, Neb. — Darius Carter wouldn’t say almost losing a tooth was the reason he played well against IU.
But he wasn’t denying it, either.
“When they pushed my tooth back in place, I let out a big scream and I felt a release,” Carter said following Wichita State’s 81-76 win against IU. “Maybe it was (helpful), I’m not sure. I just wanted to win.”
One of Carter’s teeth was pushed backward into his mouth when IU sophomore forward Collin Hartman inadvertently elbowed him in the face about five minutes into the second half.
The injury was bad enough to make Wichita State Coach Gregg Marshall believe the tooth was fully knocked out, but it wasn’t.
Carter left the game briefly only to get his tooth pushed back into place. He returned to the floor to score seven of his nine points and grab three rebounds after almost losing the tooth.
He said he felt quite a bit of pain, but he didn’t want to leave the game.
“We pride ourselves on toughness, the whole ‘play angry’ thing,” Carter said. “We want to play through anything that happens to us.”
That decision paid off. He was able to contribute just enough to his teammates during crunch time down the stretch to help his team advance to the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32.
“He was pretty good,” IU freshman forward Emmitt Holt said. “I feel like we could have definitely done a little better on defense, especially in the second half when the big guys heated up.”
Carter’s teammates could see he was in pain during the game, but he was able to laugh about it after the fact.
A trip to the dentist will surely be in Carter’s near future, but maybe not until after he and his teammates play Kansas on Sunday.
“I’m thankful I got my tooth,” Carter said, laughing. “That would be a bad look to not have a tooth.”
