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WHAT'S MY NAME? WORDS. Bryan Horowitz PHOTO. Tom Ciszek/Rutgers Athletics Eli Carter After Rutgers stunned No. 10 Florida, 85-83, in double overtime two days before New Year's Eve, nobody could stop talking about the brilliant performance by Eli Carter. Everyone except for, that is, Eli Carter. "I had no doubt who I was giving the ball to and what play it was go- ing to be," said Rutgers coach Mike Rice of Carter after the game. Fellow freshman guard Jerome Seagears, obviously a student of basketball, animatedly compared Carter's performance to Bernard King's 60-point Christmas Day game, which occurred eight years before Seagears was born. Junior forward Dane Miller said of Carter: "He's one of the best scor- ers I've seen." Even Kyrie Irving, a friend of Carter's, chimed in on Twitter. But in terms of persona, Carter is far more Derrick Rose than Gary Payton. While his teammates excitedly watched highlights on ESPN in the locker room, a reserved Carter gave the impression it was nothing special, rather than the best non-conference victory for Rutgers in over 20 years. To watch Carter figuratively shrug off his performance after the game, you'd never know it was the same guy who vaporized Florida's more heralded and experienced backcourt en route to a game-high 31 points. Asked about the zone he was in, Carter deadpanned, "I just try to stay calm. When the ball's in my hand, if there's an open shot, I take it." Arguably the biggest singular shot of the game was Carter's three- pointer with 18 seconds left to tie the game and send it to double overtime. Carter's take? "Coach called the play for me, I came off the screen. They kind of flat hedged, stayed back off me a little bit, so I took the open shot." Belying Carter's stoicism was the wonderfully mad atmosphere at the 8,000-seat Louis Brown Athletic Center, a throwback gem. At what is affectionately known as the RAC, the band provides the only soundtrack, the scoreboard is digital, the fans are right on top of the court and the noise level is simply deafening when elite teams like Florida come to visit. (Seagears: "The floor was shaking, it was so crazy. I thought Godzilla was on the way.") Working the crowd further into a frenzy was the return of former Scar- let Knights star Mike Rosario, who transferred to Florida two years ago when Rutgers Basketball wasn't in nearly as good a place. Limited by a back injury, Rosario scored five points in 14 minutes and was roundly booed every time he touched the ball. Harboring no ill will, Rosario entered the Rutgers locker room after the game to congratulate his former mates. But Rutgers' freshman-laden group reduced the Rosario saga to a mere subplot. Besides Cart- er, Myles Mack – who won the de facto high school national title with St. Anthony's at the RAC back in the spring – sank a trio of key three-pointers. Seagears attacked the basket relentlessly en route to 13 points. "The No. 10 ranked team came in our building, and the last two min- utes of that game, our freshmen's faces lit up," said Rice. "I said (to the team), 'This is what happens when you believe, when you don't think the impossible is impossible.'" Carter was the seventh and final member of Rutgers' decorated fresh- man class. In fact, he committed only after recruit Mike Taylor decided to go to prep school for a year and junior college transfer Tyree Graham ruptured his Achilles. Perhaps the same even keel Carter showed after a magnificent indi- vidual performance in a charged environment lends itself to the poise he demonstrates on the court. As such, despite seemingly being a rela- tive afterthought, Carter appears nonetheless to have the potential in both mentality and ability to be the go-to scorer an identity-starved Rutgers has craved post-Rosario. This isn't to say there aren't growing pains for a young group. Follow- ing their win over the Gators, Rutgers dropped a 67-65 heartbreaker to South Florida in which Carter scored 23 points but missed a potential game-tying shot at the buzzer. Rutgers then lost by 21 to West Virginia despite a game-high 19 from Carter. "We've been through a lot of close games," said Carter after the loss to USF. "Everybody's frustrated, but we're just going to get better from this." Make no mistake, Rutgers has a ways to go. But with Carter leading by example, the pieces are in place for the program to start making strides. "This is why I came here, to change things around," said Carter after the Florida win. "This is just the beginning. If we keep playing the way we're playing and practicing every day, there's no telling who we can beat." And perhaps that's the key for Eli Carter – not so much acting like you've done it before, but acting like you're going to do it again. 22