BUIES CREEK - Reco McCarter and Kevin McGeehan are connected by stops in Richmond, Va., even San Antonio.
Now they're together at Campbell, with McGeehan directing the basketball program as a first-year head coach and the 6-foot-6 McCarter leading the team in scoring.
"It's kind of crazy," McCarter said.
Three seasons ago, McGeehan was working as an assistant at Richmond and McCarter was redshirting as a freshman at crosstown rival VCU. Both teams advanced to the NCAA tournament's Southwest Regional as double-digit seeds, and Kansas beat the Spiders in the Alamodome before losing to the Rams with a Final Four berth at stake.
McCarter played sparingly the next year, decided to transfer to a school closer to his hometown of Goldsboro, received a waiver to compete immediately for the Camels and averaged 8.0 points in coach Robbie Laing's final season.
McGeehan brought a spread-motion offense to Buies Creek, and the left-handed McCarter has bounced back from a slow start to boost his scoring average to 11.2 points. Over the last five games, he has led Campbell with averages of 19.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.8 steals.
McCarter is a repeat winner of the Big South Conference Player of the Week award, and the Camels (8-10, 2-1) are tied for first place in the North Division as they prepare for a Saturday afternoon home game against VMI (9-7, 2-1).
Of the Big South's 12 teams, none are unbeaten through three league games, and eight teams possess a 2-1 record. It's a wide-open race, and McCarter's recent surge has helped Campbell become a darkhorse contender.
"More than the stats, there's such a presence to him," McGeehan said after a win in the Big South opener against High Point. "He looked like a confident, aggressive, completely focused player that was willing and ready to sort of take his team where they needed to go. He's really, really talented, and games like this, you start to see there's more there with regard to poise and leadership.
"I think that's huge, and his presence is incredible for what we can become."
Against High Point, McCarter hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 1:18 left and totaled 19 points while playing in front of his grandmother, Brenda, who is on a waiting list for a kidney transplant. Her condition convinced McCarter that he should leave coach Shaka Smart's thriving program.
As a redshirt freshman, McCarter played the final 23 seconds of a 73-51 road victory against a Richmond team with McGeehan on the bench and Greg Robbins, now a graduate assistant at Campbell, in a Spiders uniform. A year after reaching the Final Four, VCU went 1-1 in the NCAA tournament, and McCarter announced his intention to transfer less than two weeks after a 63-61 loss to Indiana.
McCarter was popular among Rams fans because of his dunking ability, but he managed six points in a meager 16 minutes during the 2011-12 season. He is extremely close to his grandmother, who receives dialysis three times a week, and relocating to Buies Creek allowed him to attend school less than an hour from Goldsboro.
"She has been supporting me, helping me since I first started breathing," McCarter said. "To be able to be back here for her and for her to be able to make it to games to see her grandson play, it means a lot to me. That's why I play with so much passion, because she's always told me I can be whatever I want to be."
McCarter had 11 double-figure outings as a part-time starter last year, and he averaged 7.8 points in the first 13 games of this season. As soon as the calendar flipped to 2014, he went 2-for-8 from 3-point range and 8-for-8 on his two-point attempts while scoring a career-high 29 points against East Carolina.
McCarter totaled 33 points over the next two games and scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half of a 75-67 win at Longwood, which held a 60-50 lead with 6:30 remaining. Liberty was ahead 43-30 at halftime Tuesday, and visiting Campbell rallied to take the lead behind a strong second half from McCarter, who scored all 14 of his points in the final 20 minutes of a 71-68 loss to the league's NCAA tournament representative from 2013.
McCarter, who has shot 63 percent from two-point range and made eight 3-pointers in the last five games, said encouragement from within the team helped him shake out of his slump.
"I just play basketball within our system," McCarter said. "My teammates, the coaches, the guys all have faith in me. There was a point in the season where I was struggling, but I never lost confidence, and I've gained a lot the last couple of games."
