MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - As expected, former two-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Jevon Carter put on an impressive performance at this year's NBA Draft Combine, which took place May 16-20 in Brooklyn, New York.
 
This is what SI.com had to say about Carter's showing in a Thursday afternoon scrimmage against the other top prospects in this year's draft.
 
"Perhaps the draft's top defensive guard, Carter spent a lot of time matched up against Devonte' Graham and Tony Carr and reinforced his stock in the 25–40 range," SI.com wrote. "He began the game by picking up Carr man-to-man across the length of the court, and his unrelenting intensity makes it easy to group him in with success stories like Patrick Beverley, another Chicago native who has made a living off of ball pressure and making open shots.
 
"Carter's offensive decision-making can be up and down and he fell into a spell of trying to do too much, but he should be able to find a role despite a lack of great physical measurements. He specializes in making opponents uncomfortable, uses his hands extremely well and understands positioning on the perimeter. Expect a team to fall in love with him."
 
Carter continued his impressive work on Friday afternoon by posting one of the better day-two stat lines of the showcase with 17 points, five rebounds and four assists.
 

It's no surprise that Jevon Carter stood out at the NBA Draft Combine.
Here's JC in his own words. #HailWV pic.twitter.com/L3s0enliRc

— WVU Basketball (@WVUhoops) May 20, 2018

In the workouts leading up to the games, Carter had the best shuttle drill at the combine with a time of 3.04 seconds, and he was fourth in the lane agility drill with a time of 11.04 seconds. 
 
He also tested well in the three-quarter court sprint, finishing tied for fifth, the standing vertical (tied for fifth) as well as the vertical jump (sixth) with a leap of 36 feet, five inches.
 
He measured at 6 feet, ¼ inches without shoes, weighed 200 pounds and had the fourth-best body fat percentage of the players invited to Chicago at 4.15 percent.
 
The current NBA player Carter has been compared to most frequently is six-year veteran Patrick Beverley, now playing for the Los Angeles Clippers.
 
"That's the prototype for (Carter) in terms of his defensive presence and his ability to guard 94 feet," ESPN draft expert Mike Schmitz said. "What stands out most for me is (his) hands. I think he has the quickest, strongest hands in college basketball and now the draft."
 
Carter, speaking to Maria Taylor, Jay Bilas and Schmitz on ESPN2 following his day-two performance last Friday, said his objective heading into the five-on-five scrimmages was to simply play the way he played at West Virginia where he was a two-time national defensive player of the year.
 
"I just wanted to go out there and play hard, give a lot of energy and try and lead my team to a victory. Just do what I do … picking up full, causing havoc and just playing hard," Carter said.
 
The Maywood, Illinois, resident said he first learned to play that way from his father, but it was reinforced when Bob Huggins recruited him to play for West Virginia.
 
"It was fun playing for him," Carter explained. "He makes you play hard and if you think you're going hard he unlocks another level. He always showed me that I could play harder than I was already playing."
 
Carter's entire game improved dramatically, which is what usually happens when players spend four years with Huggins. Carter went from shooting 36 percent and averaging 8.1 points per game as a freshman in 2015 to shooting 42.2 percent and averaging 17.3 points per contest during his senior season in 2018.
 
He led the Mountaineers to three NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances and three Big 12 Tournament championship-game trips. He ranks among West Virginia's all-time leaders in scoring, steals and assists.
 
"Every year I've been playing basketball I've been learning something new, so it's going to be another learning process for me," Carter said of preparing to become an NBA player.
 
Where Carter is going to end up is anyone's guess. After the Phoenix Suns likely take Arizona center Deandre Ayton No. 1 and the next few picks come off the board, it becomes a matter of personal preference for the rest of the draft.
 
One good workout or one good impression is all a player needs to be selected.
 
SI.com projects Carter going 36^thto the New York Knicks while ESPN.com has him slotted at No. 41 to the Orlando Magic in their most recent mock drafts.
 
ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas has Carter ranked No. 36 on his "best available list" while ESPN's Jonathan Givony ranks Carter No. 44 among the top 100 players in this year's draft.
 
Sophomore forward Sagaba Konate was also invited to the combine and performed well last weekend. The most recent ESPN draft top 100 list has Konate rated No. 62, which puts him just outside the top 60 picks for this year's draft.
 
West Virginia has not had a player taken in the NBA draft since 2010, when guard Da'Sean Butler and forward Devin Ebanks were back-to-back choices in the second round at No. 42 and 43.
 
Forward Joe Alexander was the eighth overall player selected in 2008 by the Milwaukee Bucks, and before that, forward Gordon Malone was the 43^rdpick in the 1997 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves when he left school a year early.
 
Malone never played in the NBA.
 
Those are the only players from WVU drafted since it was pared down to two rounds in 1989.
 
Huggins has had numerous players drafted during his long and successful college coaching career, most notably No. 1 overall pick Kenyon Martin in 2000 when he was at Cincinnati.
 
Martin considered leaving school a year early but only received a second-round grade so his decision to spend another season with Huggins paid off considerably, not only in the position he was taken in the draft the following year but also in the length of his pro career at 15 seasons.
 
On numerous occasions, Martin has credited the extra time spent with Huggins in helping him become better prepared to play professional basketball.
 
"It's more mental than it is physical. That's what I learned playing four years for him," Carter said of playing for Huggins.
 
Following the combine, players will go through private workouts with individual NBA teams leading up to this year's draft, which will be held June 21 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
 
Underclassmen have until May 30 - 10 days after the combine - to remain or withdraw from this year's draft.