Maryland graduate guard Don Carey has made several stops during his college career, but there is no place like home.
Carey, a native of Upper Marlboro, Md., has stayed local for most of his hoops career. The Frederick Douglass High School graduate went to Mount St. Mary’s, Siena and Georgetown before transferring to Maryland ahead of the 2022-23 season.
Carey hopes to bring consistent production to the Terps and hopes to win a Big Ten championship at Maryland. The 6-foot-5, 187-pound guard averaged 7.2 points and 2.6 rebounds per game in helping the Terps get off to an 8-3 start.
“At my other schools I did what I needed to do to help us be a better team,” Carey said. “With this team, my strength is shooting, so being able to space the floor out and make shots — and defend as well. That’s been a big improvement for me, being able to defend.”
Carey was one of several additions head coach Kevin Willard made after he got the job at Maryland. Willard landed guards Jahmir Young, Jahari Long and Carey and forward Patrick Emilien via the transfer portal and added Noah Batchelor and Caelum Swanton-Rodger from the prep ranks.
“Don to me is one of those guys that always going to make the right plays, the right reads, and he is a guy on the court that everyone has to know that he is there,” Willard said. “I think he’s played well defensively. I think he’s played at a higher level defensively than he ever has. He always is in the right spot.”
But before being a vital part of Willard’s vision, Carey had to turn doubters into believers during his journey. His brother, Jamall Robinson, helped prepare him to take his talents to the next level. Robinson played college basketball at Hofstra and what was then known as LIU Brooklyn.
“I just watched his whole journey and that’s when I kind of grew that love for basketball — going to AAU practices, competing against him and his teammates as well playing against that older group,” Carey said. “It’s been a blessing to be able to learn from his journey and apply that to my own.”
Carey averaged 13 points, six rebounds and seven assists during his senior year at Frederick Douglass in 2016-17. His contribution led the Eagles to a 20-4 record and an appearance in the Prince George’s County championship game, but he did not attract a lot of attention from college coaches.
“I wasn’t recruited out of high school heavily. I planned to go to prep school after my senior year of high school,” Carey said. “I always knew that I had the talent to play at the next level, but no one believed in me. That made me just work for everything that I have now. And I still have a work ethic.”
However, former Mount St. Mary’s head coach Jamion Christian offered Carey an opportunity to play for the Mountaineers. Carey started all 32 games as a freshman in 2017-18 and averaged 9.0 points, 3.4 assists and 2.7 rebounds.
“I would say that’s the year I liked the most,” Carey said. “My perspective opened up the most there. Jamion Christian brought me along as a player and as a young man. He helped me dissect what college basketball is and how to be successful at that level and what it takes to be successful.”
Carey followed Christian to Siena, just north of Albany, N.Y., where he had to sit out a year before playing because of the NCAA transfer rules in place at the time. By the time Carey was eligible to play at Siena, Christian was off to George Washington University.
When he finally was able to play at Siena in 2019-20, Carey averaged 11.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 30 games and 28 starts. Carey transferred to Georgetown following the season.
“The location,” Carey said of the biggest difference between Siena and Mount St. Mary’s. “I was much farther away from home, six hours. So, that was a huge adjustment I had to make, especially in my redshirt year where you are not playing basketball or traveling with the team. Super tough, mentally, for me that year.”
Carey spent two years at Georgetown (2020-2022) and averaged 10.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.3 assists during his time there. In 2021, he helped lead the Hoyas to a Big East tournament championship and their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2015.
“It was really rewarding,” Carey said. “We couldn’t string together any significant wins consistently, but we started clicking at the end of the year. Everyone counted us out from the beginning, so it was just good to enjoy that moment with my brothers because we were battling all year.”
Carey was named the first team captain of the Patrick Ewing era ahead of Georgetown’s 2021-22 season. He now hopes to use that experience as a leader to help the Terps make a deep tournament run along with Maryland’s other veterans. Willard believes experienced players make his job easier.
“It’s great,” Willard said of having older players. “It’s nice having older guys. They understand it. They have been through it, they get it. I think emotionally they stay so much more steady than the younger guys. So, it’s been nice for a multitude of reasons.”
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox
Issue 278: December 2022 / January 2023
Originally published Dec. 21, 2022