Andrew Carr Doesn't Quit: How Kentucky's Team Dad Battled Back Pain to Return to Action

Andrew Carr had one objective during Kentucky’s bye week: get healthy. Coming off one of his worst games of the season, a four-point, one-rebound outing vs. Alabama, the 6’11” forward practically lived in the training room, undergoing “every treatment under the sun,” as Mark Pope put it, to get closer to 100%. As trainers worked on his back, Carr worked on his mind.

“I’ve never really dealt with anything kind of like this,” Carr told KSR in an exclusive one-on-one that week. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to kind of turn the corner.”

The back spasms started around New Year’s and peaked during Kentucky’s loss at Georgia on Jan. 7, leaving Carr unable to sit down during timeouts. He played through the pain for three more games, missing practices to rest and receive treatment to be ready come game time. As Carr said, this was new territory; before coming to Kentucky, he had only missed one college game, during his sophomore year at Delaware. He missed his second on Jan. 25, sitting out Kentucky’s loss at Vanderbilt. Carr has worked his way back into action since then without setbacks, but balancing his desire to play with the limitations of his injury has been one of the biggest challenges of his career.

“It certainly is a difficult thing, and it really goes up and up and down and up and down with how you feel about it,” he said. “Coming off a win, you look back at it and you’re like, oh man, I was able to make an impact. Do we win the game without you? Then, great job, all that stuff, and then coming out of a loss, it’s human nature to think about, oh man, what would have happened if I was feeling 100%?”

“I get chills in my body just thinking about somebody that’s willing to sacrifice [like Carr is],” Kentucky associate head coach Alvin Brooks III told KSR. “He was actually worried that he was hurting us and not helping us by playing while not being 100%. So, to have somebody that cared that much about his brothers and about Kentucky and about us as a family — I mean, it’s hard to see him go through it, but you respect it, because he can also just sit out and say, I can’t do it anymore.”

Once you get to know Carr’s story, it’s not surprising at all; it’s how he and his siblings were raised.

“The motto was always, Carrs don’t quit,” Phil Carr, Andrew’s father, told KSR. “Doesn’t matter what you’re doing, Carrs don’t quit. And they all took that to heart in whatever it was that they were doing.”

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Growing Pains

An old toilet handle used to hang from the chain link fence outside the dugout where the Carrs played Little League baseball. Phil, the coach, used it to teach his players to “flush” away their mistakes, whether it be a strikeout, an error, etc.

“You had to flush it if something happened,” Lizzie Carr, Andrew’s younger sister, recalled. “Flush it and it’s gone, and that’s it. You’re moving on.”

That lesson extended far past the diamond for the Carr children, who excelled in a variety of sports growing up. Alexander, the eldest, was the only one of the four who wouldn’t go on to play at the Division I level. Andrew played basketball at the University of Delaware before transferring to Wake Forest and then Kentucky. Lizzie, the only girl, started her volleyball career at Purdue and transferred to Kentucky in December. Peter, the youngest, is a freshman basketball player at Virginia Tech.

All four Carrs cast a wide net growing up, with Andrew trying his hand at baseball, soccer, lacrosse, basketball, and even gymnastics. Lizzie added field hockey and volleyball to her mix. Evenings and weekends were spent driving to various games, tournaments, and practices. With his wife often traveling for her job, Phil was the one to run the command center to get them to and fro, a perk of his flexible work schedule.

“For our family in general, he was the rock for us,” Andrew said of his dad. “He was home at 5:30, 6:00 p.m. every single day.”

It wasn’t until they reached high school that each Carr narrowed their focus to one sport. Andrew was still balancing three — lacrosse, soccer, and basketball — when a growth spurt pushed him in one direction. From the start of his freshman year of high school to his sophomore year, Carr grew seven inches, which led to Osgood-Schlatter disease, literal growing pains, in his knees.

“There were days, just walking around high school, that the stairs were my worst enemy,” Carr said. “I couldn’t even walk upstairs some days. You’re walking up in the morning, and you just feel taller every single day.”

“He did not complain very much,” Phil said. “He would do what he could do in terms of putting ice on your knee and that sort of thing, but it wasn’t like, ‘I can’t do this because my knees hurt.’ He would certainly try.”

The pain in Carr’s knees forced him to miss soccer season that fall. After playing basketball in the winter, his knees hurt so badly that he had to eliminate another sport he loved, lacrosse.

“He had basically decided, look, I don’t want to go join the lacrosse team and take somebody’s spot because my knees hurt so much and I can’t really compete,” Phil recalled. “It kind of goes back to the to the ‘Carrs don’t quit’ [thing]. He didn’t want to start something that he couldn’t finish.”

Before the growth spurt, Carr was 5’10” and played a variety of positions on the court. Phil, a center for Delaware from 1984-87, taught him some moves during pickup games in the driveway. After sprouting to 6’5″, Carr had to start using them.

“Because my dad was a big man, he always tried to teach me that 15-foot baseline jumper to use the backboard and try to bank some shots in and things like that because that’s how he played when he was growing up.”

During his sophomore year in 2017, Carr tried out for AAU. Most high-level Division I players play travel ball from the moment they can dribble a basketball. Carr was late to the show, but Phil said that may have turned out to be a blessing because it helped his son avoid some of the bad habits that you sometimes see in AAU play. Phil remembers the tryout distinctly.

“In the first evaluation that that he was in, they were like, ‘Hey, you need to move over to this floor and play with these guys,’ and you could tell that they immediately recognized his ability, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we need to get you over here on the top team.’ And that’s where he stayed.”

That validation served as fuel for Carr to dig in harder, a cycle that continues to this day.

“At that point, everything kind of clicked,” he said. “It was the first game of my sophomore year. I was coming off the bench, and I had 25 and that kind of really kickstarted, at least in me, the confidence that I was really able to be a talented, really great basketball player, and kind of everything took off from there.”

Carr’s biggest adjustment? Learning to play in his new body. After years of playing as a guard, he had good ball-handling skills. Lacrosse taught him footwork. But, banging around in the post? Carr credits his former AAU teammate Jeff Woodward with helping him learn how to play like a big. The two reunited earlier this season when Kentucky hosted Colgate, with Woodward, a center for the Raiders, lining up across from Carr, at Rupp Arena.

“He was like, 6-10, 250 lbs. since his eighth-grade year, or something like that. So for me, being in the AAU season, and going to battle with someone that physically demanding, it really helped me grow as a player as well. It was kind of funny, to have two opposite sides of the spectrum to be able to play on the same team and learn from each other. He was always a little bit on the other side of what development could be.”

Going into his junior year, Carr started hearing from colleges. Coaches attended his games and the local media started to take notice. That season, he averaged 19 points and seven rebounds per game for West Chester East, earning third-team All-State honors. After that AAU season, Carr received his first offer, opening his mind to basketball being something more than just a high school hobby.

“Once it became a possibility for me, I think something was able to click in my mind that I could really do this,” he said. “And it just fueled that hunger and the drive to be able to do it.”

One offer stood out above the rest. In November 2019, Carr signed with Delaware, ready to follow in his father and uncle’s footsteps.

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Learning to Fly

The Delaware Blue Hens have always been a part of Andrew Carr’s life. As a kid, he remembers his family making the 45-minute trip from West Chester to Newark to attend Delaware games, where his father and uncle would often be recognized at halfcourt alongside other alumni.

“He was my hero growing up,” Carr said of his dad. “You see your dad out there in the middle of a basketball game, it really makes an impression on you as a little kid. And so I knew that that was special to him. And he was able to kind of pass that down to me, and really help me kind of understand what the game of basketball can do for people.”

As much as the idea of Andrew attending his alma mater appealed to Phil, he encouraged his son to make his college decision for himself. Delaware’s academic reputation, especially in physical therapy, Andrew’s original field of study, helped tip the scales in the Blue Hens’ favor.

“I was certainly not pushing Delaware on him at all,” Phil said. “That was one of the things that I was like, don’t do this because you think I want this. This is going to be right for you and I think it was. I think he would say the same.”

Andrew moved to Newark during the summer of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. Students weren’t allowed in the dorms, so the Carrs found an apartment for him off campus. Andrew quickly learned how to fend for himself.

“The dining halls weren’t open,” Phil said. “You had to try to cook your own meals, or order out your own meals, and do all that stuff. There was no script for how to do it.”

Even with all the obstacles presented by the pandemic, Carr did well that season, playing in all 15 games and starting ten. He averaged 8.2 points and 3.6 rebounds and won Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Rookie of the Week after scoring 39 points total in back-to-back games vs. Hofstra. The Pride ended Delaware’s season in the CAA Tournament quarterfinals, but the next year, Carr helped lead the Blue Hens to the CAA Tournament Championship, clinching a spot in the NCAA Tournament for just the sixth time in program history.

“I think that probably will always be one of the best moments in my life, the coolest moments in my life, when my sophomore year, we ended up winning the league,” Andrew said. “After that game, coming down, seeing how happy my dad was, to be able to share a moment, right there was really special, just because of what Delaware meant to him, and when he was able to go and play there.

“To be able to not only just play there, but be able to win a championship there, it will forever be a part of my legacy and be a big part of my basketball journey as well. That will always be a really special moment in my life, and I’ll never trade it for anything.”

Phil called on his former Delaware teammates to join him in Pittsburgh to cheer Andrew and the Blue Hens on in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. A group of 35 former players, friends, and family members were at PPG Paints Arena on March 18, 2022, to see Delaware take on Villanova, the “local school” just a 30-minute drive from the Carrs’ home in West Chester. Carr scored 13 points on 5-5 from the floor and pulled down three rebounds in the 80-60 loss. The moment on the sport’s biggest stage left him wanting more.

“I felt like I was playing the best basketball at the end of the season, played really well in the [CAA] tournament and as well into the NCAA Tournament,” Andrew said. “And I knew, like I said, when it first hit me that I was able to play Division I or was getting those looks, the drive, and the hunger started to really dig in for me. And so I felt like the next step for me was to be able to try and take the big leap into the high major level.”

Phil admits he had some hesitations when Andrew told him he wanted to enter the transfer portal; those were put to rest when Andrew shared his plan, which included a potential third school if he needed to maximize his NBA Draft stock.

“I give him credit every time the conversation comes up for betting on himself,” Phil said. “He kind of opened my eyes, instead of me trying to open his.”

Carr entered the transfer portal on April 6, 2022. Less than a month later, he committed to Wake Forest, picking the Demon Deacons over NC State, Saint Louis, Davidson, and Virginia Tech.

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High-Major Awakening

Andrew Carr credits Brooks Savage for leading him to Winston-Salem. Savage, now the head coach at East Tennessee State, was an assistant on Steve Forbes’ staff, helping develop Jake LaRavia into an All-ACC player and first-round NBA Draft pick. He and Forbes had a similar vision for Carr as a stretch four. It started in the weight room, where Carr was able to take advantage of the resources of a high-major program.

“I was really able to kind of grow in my game, I felt like, as a player and certainly the weight room and the nutrition and the things that we were able to do at the higher-major level also made a big difference in what I wanted to do,” Carr said. “And so being able to take that next step and perform and prove that I felt like I belonged at the higher major level was awesome that first season at Wake Forest.”

Off the court, Carr pushed himself to grow in other areas. Over the summer and during Wake Forest’s European exhibition trip, he went the extra mile to get to know his new teammates, his first step down the path of becoming a Team Dad.

“It was my first time being a new person on campus. I was still an older player on a team with more experience, but for me, a lot of it became off-the-court leading, just trying to be able to be there for teammates when everybody’s going through something different.”

It worked. When the team started practice in September, Carr was voted one of four team captains, a rarity for a transfer.

“I really tried to learn everybody on a personal level. And so when you’re able to do that, it just grows the bond between you and them. And then also, it was really cool for me to be able to kind of be a middleman for other teammates, to be able to try and connect them as well. So, kind of just that perspective of trying to really make that a point of emphasis, kind of brings out the dad role in general, trying to learn people and understand what everybody’s going through, and be there for them whenever they need it most.”

Carr started every game during his two years at Wake Forest, averaging in double figures scoring each season. During the first month of his senior season, he reached the 1,000-point and 500-rebound mark of his career. The Demon Deacons were on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble in both of Carr’s seasons. After graduation, Carr had one season of eligibility remaining. He entered the transfer portal on April 15, 2024, and also declared for the NBA Draft to figure out what he needed to do to become a pro.

Three days prior, Mark Pope was named the new head basketball coach at Kentucky.

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“We have to have you. You need to come.”

Phil Carr will never forget the first time he met Mark Pope. After some Zoom calls, the Carrs hosted Pope and Kentucky’s staff at their home in West Chester. Going into the visit, Phil’s feelings about Kentucky’s interest were mixed. The program’s reputation speaks for itself, but the prospect of joining a total rebuild felt like a gamble at a critical juncture of his son’s career.

“Conversations with Andrew and with Pope were very encouraging and exciting, but in the back of your mind, you’re like, ‘Yeah, but who’s going to be on the team?'”

Pope bounded in the door, a 6’10” ball of energy. Instead of just sitting down in the living room and talking with the family, he had something to show them.

“We went downstairs and we watched film,” Phil recalled. “Coach Pope was so prepared for the way Andrew played at Wake Forest, with film, breaking down the film. ‘We see how you play. This is how we see you playing at Kentucky,’ and Pope’s like, ‘You’re exactly what I need for our team, and we have to have you. You need to come. You need to come to Kentucky.’ So that took a lot of the concerns or fear or unknown out of the equation. That was very exciting.”

There’s a reason Pope was so prepared. When Carr entered the portal and Pope watched his tape, he knew that the versatile big man was “born to play for” him. Those feelings were cemented during their first Zoom call, during which Pope said he realized the two were kindred spirits. Carr had done his research — like all Kentucky fans, he watched the YouTube video comparing Pope’s offense to a video game — but there was something different about hearing Pope describe how he’d fit into it. During an uncertain time in his life, it made his confidence bloom once again.

“Man, it’s the best when Coach says that. I think it solidifies, for someone who’s trying to figure out how you’re going to fit in, that it’s going to work out. When a coach is that committed, that confident in your abilities and the way that they fit into what he wants to do, it makes you think that there’s no way that this could possibly fail.”

Pope had an unknown ally in Carr’s recruitment: Amari Williams. The seven-foot center committed to Kentucky on April 21, becoming the third player on the roster alongside Travis Perry and Collin Chandler. Drexel is Delaware’s rival in the CAA, so Williams and Carr had squared off more than once, with Carr getting the last laugh in the 2022 CAA quarterfinals.

“I’m looking at it, and I see Amari; I feel like I know him because I’ve played against him,” Carr recalled. “We’re in the same league. Drexel is our rival. We really knew each other pretty well. And so for me, it encouraged me. I wanted to play with him. I knew how good of a player he was and from everything I had heard, was such a great person as well.”

Pope’s in-home visit earned the Cats an official visit, one of three during a three-day span (Texas Tech, Kentucky, Villanova). By now, you know the story of Pope picking the family up in Bowling Green after travel delays forced them to fly to Nashville and rent a car to get to Lexington. You haven’t heard how panicked assistant coach Cody Fueger was during all of it.

“We were telling Cody, ‘Look, I think we’re gonna miss our connector,'” Phil recalled when their flight from Lubbock to Dallas was delayed. “And he was like, ‘No, no, no, Pope is gonna kill me! You gotta make it here. No, you gotta make it!’”

UK’s staff and Andrew’s mom Darby, an experienced traveler, quickly booked the Carrs on alternate flights to airports near Lexington: one to Cincinnati, one to Louisville, and one to Nashville. After landing in Dallas, they ran through the airport to try to make each one, getting on the flight to Nashville just as the doors were closing. They told Fueger the good news and said they’d get a rental car and drive north when they landed. He insisted they let someone come pick them up or meet them along the way. They agreed to the latter, having no idea it would be Pope, who was coming off a marathon day of his own, having visited Lamont Butler in Las Vegas and hosting Saint Mary’s transfer Aidan Mahaney on an official visit.

“We drove to a Shell gas station in Bowling Green that was on the side of the road, and he had a little care package of snacks and drinks,” Phil said. “He’s like, ‘Come on, let’s go!’ and you can just hear him saying, ‘Let’s go!’ now that I’ve heard it so many times.”

“For him to just be super, just impulsive in the way of, he heard about what was going to happen, and he was like, ‘Nope, I’m getting in the car,’ and he just started driving, you know, something like that is really special,” Carr recalled. “I just knew deep down how much he really cared, not only just about Kentucky and things but just specifically about me as well.”

By the time they pulled into Lexington at 4:30 a.m., Carr had a very good feeling about what lay ahead. The pomp and circumstance of the official visit were impressive, as they knew it would be; however, the real work had already been done.

“It was really not until the three-hour ride from Bowling Green to Lexington with Andrew and Mark sitting in the front seat, and Darby and I in the backseat, that we knew what kind of a connection the two of them had,” Phil said.

The Carrs continued their due diligence, going on the final official visit to Villanova the next day. The “local school” ticked a lot of boxes. Carr did his best to “disassociate” from his time in Lexington to give the other Wildcats a fair shake, but it proved to be an impossible task.

“I kind of knew in my heart that it was probably Kentucky,” Carr said. “I was doing my best to try and be as present as possible and enjoy the visit and try and see everything through for that specific visit at Villanova as well, but as the day kind of went on, it kind of just kept coming up in my mind and in my heart, that, ‘Oh, man, but Kentucky!'”

Once the visit to Villanova was over, Carr couldn’t wait to share the news with his future coach. He did it that night, in Pope’s favorite medium, FaceTime.

“It was just awesome to see just the genuine, pure reaction from Coach. And you know, he’s just smiling ear to ear and super excited. That moment is always going to be super special for me and Coach Pope.”

Carr announced his commitment on Sunday, April 28, just 13 days after entering the transfer portal. He was still trying to process Kentucky reaching out to him in the first place. Carr isn’t normally included on the list of players on this roster who were Kentucky fans growing up, but he should be. His most distinct memory is the one many fans still haven’t recovered from.

“I loved Kentucky growing up. For me specifically, I’ve got a couple of memories of the 38-0 team. I was on spring break with all my family down in Florida. We were visiting my grandparents and watching the Wisconsin game and being so upset and everything. So that is kind of really where it started and continued to follow through the rest of my middle school and high school years, and was always rooting for them.

“So, if you told me back then that I’d be playing at Kentucky, I’d tell you, ‘You’re crazy.’ And even now, I still have surreal moments of thinking about how in the world I possibly got here.”

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Becoming Kentucky’s Team Dad

After transferring to Wake Forest in 2022, Andrew Carr was used to being the new guy on the team. Being one of 12 new guys on a roster coached by an entirely new coaching staff? That’s a completely different challenge, one that Carr was ready to embrace — even if he had a few butterflies.

“I was really nervous about it. Just in general, it’s one of the things, as you’re going through the process, and you’re like, we don’t have a team, you know? And that was the big thing this year, trying to figure out whether you wanted to go here or not. And so, I’ve been a part of a couple of teams with six, seven people, new people, so I knew how difficult it was.”

That’s one reason why Carr decided to live in the Wildcat Coal Lodge that summer instead of an apartment like many of the older players. That’s where he first earned his nickname of “Team Dad,” both for the advice he would give his younger teammates and his initiative to organize team activities separate from what the coaches put together.

“Oh, it’s awesome being able to be with people who are away from home for the first time,” Carr said, smiling. “You get to see how they go about their laundry, how they clean their room, how they do all those things that you’ve got to learn when you get out of the house for the first time. So, it’s a lot of fun. You get to make fun of a lot of guys all the time about just different, regular, grown-up type things.”

Phil wasn’t surprised at all to see his son stepping into a paternal role, citing Andrew’s experience as a big brother to Lizzie and Peter and his time living on his own as a freshman at Delaware.

“I think he learned from that experience with these other guys that are coming in, the freshmen’s first extended opportunity being away from home and stuff like that might need a little direction to make things a little bit easier.”

Alvin Brooks III got to know Carr during the recruiting process, but it wasn’t until the big man got to campus that he realized just how integral he would be to this team both on and off the court.

“He’s mature beyond his years. I know at the same age, I wasn’t as mature as him. So to see how mature he is, he’s one of the big pieces of why our puzzle works because he’s constantly communicating with guys, constantly bringing guys together, and not only on the court, but off the court as well. So that’s a huge advantage for us.”

Carr remembers those early days in the lodge fondly. From money questions to relationship problems and even helping Brandon Garrison put together TV stands, his door was always open.

“They always come to me when they’re looking for some advice or something like that,” Carr said. “BG just assumes that I know how to do everything.

“I try to give some financial advice. That’s one of the biggest things that I’ve learned. Certainly, in the new day and age of NIL, I think it’s super important to teach them that. At that point in the summer, I knew that I wanted to propose, so a lot of times they’d ask me different girl advice and things like that, and how to get a super great and stable relationship.”

Naturally, living around his younger teammates made Carr feel the age gap on more than one occasion. Over the summer, freshman Travis Perry would give Carr grief for all his pre- and post-practice preparations.

“Travis likes to make me feel old all the time. I think he’s started to feel it a little bit by this point but in the summer, I’d be there like two and a half hours before practice in the hot tub, doing all my stretches and doing everything, and he just rolls up and is able to anything, no stretching or nothing. I’m in there for two hours after practice, trying to make sure I’m getting my body feeling right and things like that, and trying to take care of it and be proactive as much as possible with all of that stuff. Sometimes he will go and get some food, and he’ll come back and just know that I’ll be in there doing what I need to do.”

Carr didn’t have any specific dad jokes to pass along, instead admitting his humor is “just super cheesy”; however, he does have one dad trait that Dr. Rick from the Progressive Insurance “Turning into your parents” commercials would give him grief over.

“He would tell me not to fall asleep in my chair watching TV every single night.”

Brooks said Carr has the dad role down, even with his gameday wardrobe.

“I mean, he comes to the games in pajama pants. Not many people would do that. You look at the rest of our players, most of them are wearing nice clothes or just trying to maybe impress somebody. Drew’s just coming in pajama pants. So I think he’s just secure with who he is. And I don’t think he takes it personal. He’s a mature guy.”

Carr was pleased to see that his team-building efforts were contagious early on in the season. Even though he’s moved out of the lodge and into an apartment, he hasn’t let his Team Dad responsibilities slack. Brooks said that Carr regularly has his teammates over to play video games or just hang out.

“They’ve done different things together without us asking to do it. And so that’s a big step of leadership. You have to have somebody very mature to see the benefit of doing that.”

The best example of that is the surprise birthday party that Carr organized for Kerr Kriisa, who suffered a Jones fracture in his foot earlier in the season. Kriisa had been struggling to find ways to stay connected with the team during his rehab; the video of him walking into his apartment to see the entire team jump out of the kitchen wearing party hats and blowing horns went viral.

“No idea,” Brooks said of the surprise party. “At least I didn’t [know]. I found out on social media when I saw the video, and I was like, wow, this is very cool. I immediately showed my wife and said, this is not normal, like for all of those guys to surprise Kerr, and we had practice that day. So, for Kerr to not know, that shows that it’s a true brotherhood.”

Kerr Kriisa is SHOCKED as his teammates jump out to scare him at his surprise birthday party 💙 pic.twitter.com/nlEg7Pdmk3

— Kentucky Hoops (@kentuckyhoopsig) January 2, 2025

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The Biggest Jump Yet

On the court, Andrew Carr was working on making the most difficult jump of his career thus far. Another reason Kentucky appealed to him over Texas Tech and Villanova was the opportunity to play in the SEC. During the NBA Draft evaluation process, the feedback Carr got the most was to improve his defense. Where better to do that than at Kentucky in the hardest basketball conference in the country?

“Any way you look at it, Kentucky is the top of the top in basketball,” Carr said. “So, if you’re looking for another step up from Wake Forest, you know, I did the jump from Delaware to Wake Forest. And now if you’re going to do another jump, Kentucky is the mecca of college basketball.

“I was really looking forward to trying to be able to push myself again, and as you can see this season, the SEC is the best conference in all of college basketball, so being able to go against top-level talent, to be able to try and achieve my goals of going to the NBA, I think, trying to be able to come into this conference, be able to prove I could play, defend the super athletic, strong people that you’re going to run into here in the SEC.”

That journey started in the weight room. Carr has put on 40 pounds in college — “It might not look like it right now, still, you can only imagine what I would have looked like as a high school senior going into college.” At the beginning of the season, he was listed at 6’11”, 235 lbs. To hold his own in the SEC, he knew he needed more muscle.

“I think Coach Randy Towner, our strength coach, has done a great job as far as helping them with little details and being scientific with okay, this part of the body needs is a little bit stronger than this part of the body, so let’s even it out,” Alvin Brooks III said. “Drew has come in and done a lot of extra reps trying to make sure that he’s ready for the speed and the physicality [of the SEC]. And so he spent a lot of one-on-one time outside of the lifts with his teammates, and I think that’s helped him prepare for the SEC.”

“So now, to see him bang against — I mean, I feel like we play the No. 1 offensive rebounding team almost every game, and to see him actually physically be able to do it — and you would think he couldn’t, if you look at his frame — and he’s holding his own and more, that shows that he may not look strong, but he really is strong.”

Carr picked up Mark Pope’s unique system pretty quickly — Brooks calls him a “sponge” for how he can take feedback from a film session and apply it to the very next practice or game, a “very, very rare” ability — but there’s one part of it that’s still a work in progress.

“I would probably say shooting a three at like, 26 on the [shot] clock,” Carr said. “I’ve always been, my whole career, trying to get the best shot possible. I think it took — and I’m not even there all the time yet in all possessions and things like that, but certainly, it’s been a point of emphasis for me, coming in from the summer being told you have to shoot this shot if it’s open because we might not get another good look.”

Carr averaged 3.2 three-point attempts per game during his first year at Wake Forest and 2.8 in his second. That average is down to 1.6 this season. Part of that comes from playing alongside so many good shooters, but Pope wants Carr to be one of them, calling on him to be more aggressive from the three-point line. It’s advice the entire team could heed, as Kentucky’s shot volume continues to be below Mark Pope’s goal of 30 three-point attempts per game.

“[It’s] really hard,” Brooks said. “And I’ve shown him like, okay, you’ve passed it and somebody else has shot it. How many seconds went off the shot clock? Maybe three. So what’s the difference between your open shot and their open shot? It’s not a big difference. And so I think when you program your whole life to move the ball, it’s kind of a hard habit to break in a couple of months, and so we’re trying to continue to help them with that habit.”

All that said, Brooks can now see why Mark Pope thinks Carr is meant to play in his system. When he studied his film during the recruiting process, Carr’s versatility stood out. In the months since then, Brooks has learned just how much Carr can stretch the floor and be a matchup nightmare.

“Sometimes when he catches in the post, and he just stretches out and dunks it, it’s like the cartoon where your arms just keep going and going and going, and it’s just like, wow. We don’t practice that. So, having a chance to watch him do that, and then just him having to be 6-11 and he can shot-fake and put it on the floor, and not only make a play for himself and make a play for a teammate, to see someone his size do that, I think that stands out a lot.”

More important may be the things that don’t show up in the box score.

“He’s also very selfless to where he makes a lot of winning plays without the basketball, and that’s the sign of being a true professional because most of the time, you have the ball in your hands 5-8% of the time. So, what plays are you making that are going to help the team win the 95 to 98% of the time you don’t have the ball? He does a lot of that for us.”

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“I haven’t seen a moment where they don’t [fit]”

It’s mid-October, and Kentucky just wrapped up its annual Blue-White scrimmage. Mark Pope and Andrew Carr walked into the media room at Memorial Coliseum to talk to reporters, and as they got ready to sit down, Pope told Carr to give the opening statement. Carr did a double take, turning to his coach.

“Really?”

Pope nodded, allowing the graduate center to man the mic. It was a small moment, but a meaningful one for Phil, who was watching from across the room.

“He didn’t get rattled. He didn’t stammer and didn’t know what to say. He was like, ‘Okay, fine.’ Kind of shrugged [his] shoulders and said, ‘Okay,’ which I thought was also a confidence that obviously Mark had in Andrew, but just how alike they seem to be.”

Carr also got the honors after Kentucky’s win over Duke in the third game of the season, one in which he scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds, making several key plays down the stretch to give Pope his first statement win as Kentucky’s head coach. The similarities between Pope and Carr are impossible not to notice at this point. Those who cover the team joke that they’re morphing into the same person, right down to how they draw the vowels out in their many, many superlatives.

“Beautiful!” Carr exclaims, miming Pope. “The most amazing person I’ve ever met in the whole world!”

Carr hasn’t picked up the medical school lingo yet but said that if it seems like he and Pope are becoming the same person, it’s because he’s trying to make sure his teammates understand what the staff is trying to get across.

“I think one of the best things that I’m able to try and do is be able to be some arms and legs of the coaches, certainly in the locker room,” Carr said. “That’s been a big thing for me, is I try to understand Coach Pope. I’m really trying to emulate exactly what he wants in everything that we’re doing and everything that I’m doing. So if it does seem like that, that’s probably that is probably why, and it’s not just on accident.”

Carr’s favorite moments with Pope so far have been when Pope and his wife Lee Anne invite the players over to their house to hang out. Oftentimes, the players’ parents join them. When asked if there are specific memories of Pope and his son clicking, Phil flipped the script.

“What I think I do feel is, I haven’t seen a moment where they don’t [fit]. I don’t feel like there’s a spot where it didn’t seem like they were on the same page as opposed to, saying, hey, there’s this one more moment where they definitely are. I’ve not seen moments where they’re not.”

Another trait that Carr and Pope share: authenticity. Brooks said the Carr that fans see in media opportunities is the same Carr that he sees every day. The same goes for Pope.

“I think he kind of is who he is,” Brooks said. “He’s not a separate person off-camera. So I think [fans] kind of know who he is. He’s a selfless person, he’s a funny person, and he just, he kind of is who he is. Coach Pope comes and says how he feels to the cameras. He does the same thing. I think a lot of people have been taught not to do that, but they’re kind of like, Hey, this is what it is.”

What life looks like for Carr after basketball remains to be seen. He has a degree in communications from Wake Forest and is working on another at UK in sports, fitness, and recreation management. Most recently, Carr said he’s interested in broadcasting. Brooks thinks he’d do well following in Pope’s footsteps, even in Lexington.

“I can actually definitely see him as the head coach of Kentucky one day. He has that type of personality. He has that type of, like, just IQ. He has that type of just making everybody become one. If he decides to coach, he’s going to be a great coach. I don’t know if he will, but he definitely has those qualities.”

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Introducing the Future Mrs. Carr

Carr reached another milestone in adulthood this season. On December 22, 2024, he proposed to his longtime girlfriend Genevieve Johnson. The two met at Delaware when Carr was a sophomore and she was a freshman. Genevieve played field hockey for the Blue Hens for four seasons and graduated this past December. Maintaining a long-distance relationship hasn’t been easy, but Carr said it’s been well worth it.

“She’s the best,” Carr said of his bride-to-be. “She really means so much to me, and now she’s my fiancée, which is pretty special. It was the most important decision in my life, and I didn’t mess that one up.”

The chemistry was so instantaneous that Carr said they knew very early on, even before they went on their first date, that they were soulmates.

“I’d say, [it’s] kind of crazy, but I feel like we kind of knew even before we started dating,” he said of when he knew he wanted to propose. “We never really specifically talked about it, but I kind of just knew pretty early on in the relationship, and nothing really wavered from there, and at that point, it was just waiting for a time when you felt like you were mature enough and ready to propose at that time.”

For Carr, that was the spring of 2024, right around when he transferred to Kentucky. While he was embarking on his new challenge in Lexington, he was also planning his proposal. Having both of their families together to celebrate the moment was important. The biggest issue was figuring out when that was possible.

“It was kind of crazy because we had only seen each other for like maybe 12 hours in the three months leading up to proposing. So it had been a long time. She was in [field-hockey] season, we were starting our season and everything like that. So I was able to go to some games early on in the year but then, once the end of September hits, it’s really hard for both of us to see each other. And so it had been a long time that we’d even seen each other before being able to propose.”

Kentucky’s trip to New York City for the CBS Sports Classic provided the perfect window. While neither Carr nor Johnson has a real attachment to the city, he liked the idea of returning to the Big Apple to celebrate their engagement anniversary and Christmas. The families booked their travel arrangements and Carr’s teammates even joined in on the fun. Freshman Collin Chandler was also planning to propose to his girlfriend, so the team helped them find the ideal locations in Central Park.

“It was actually a really cool moment. A bunch of the guys came with us. Our hotel was right across from Central Park, so, we got there a couple of days before and we were able to walk around Central Park and kind of scout out some spots, which ones we liked and which ones we didn’t.”

When the big moment came, on the Sunday following Kentucky’s loss to Ohio State, both Carr and Chandler wound up in different spots than they originally planned; in fact, Carr was terrified that Chandler would be close enough to ruin the surprise.

“The 15 minutes before, I had some help from a photographer, and so we were walking up to some of the rocks near the ice skating rink that our families were out on, and I knew Collin wanted to propose on that rock, and I was like, please don’t be there still, like celebrating or something like that. I didn’t really know when he was going to do his. Because if we walked up there, I’m sure they would have been like, ‘Genevieve, has it happened yet? What’s up?’ It would have probably ruined the surprise.”

Thankfully, Chandler had proposed to his girlfriend earlier in the day (she also said yes), so Carr was in the clear. He pulled off the surprise, even if he doesn’t remember any of it.

“Actually, I don’t even know what I said. To be honest with you, I just blacked out for a little while.”

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Little Sister Joins the Fold

Around that same time, Carr reunited with another important woman in his life: his younger sister, Lizzie. Lizzie transferred from Purdue to Kentucky between semesters to join Craig Skinner’s volleyball program. Lizzie was in West Lafayette for two and a half years, redshirting her freshman season. While she enjoyed her time at Purdue, she was looking for a better opportunity. It just so happened to be at the same school where her brother was enjoying his final season of eligibility.

Lizzie had played against Kentucky as a Boilermaker and was familiar with the program thanks to its growing reputation and some former teammates who play with former Kentucky players at the professional level. Still, seeing her big brother excel in Lexington gave her a real taste of what Kentucky is all about.

“I knew a lot about Kentucky because of him, in different ways than I think other people would,” Lizzie said. “So, I knew a lot about Kentucky as a university and Kentucky athletics, and how amazing BBN is. And I know it’s a different level for basketball, but it’s still a really great support system and fan support and all of the other things and just how well they treat their athletes. And Coach Skinner did a really good job presenting volleyball to me, and what volleyball was here and what that meant.”

After several months in Lexington, how did Andrew describe Big Blue Nation to Lizzie?

“I would say there’s a lot of words that you could use to initially describe them. I think that they’re super educated and energetic and die-hard, and I think just the mass number of them as well can catch you off guard. You don’t necessarily know that part going into it. You know how much they care and how crazy necessarily they have the reputation of being, and things like that, but the mass numbers of everybody that really cares about the Kentucky athletic program is something that can certainly kind of take you back, overwhelm you a little bit at the beginning.”

Lizzie talked to several schools after entering the transfer portal; however, Kentucky just “felt right.” She announced her transfer on December 18. Lizzie’s journey as a Wildcat is just getting started — the volleyball team will play some exhibition matches later this spring — but based on Andrew’s scouting report, Craig Skinner got a good one. Even though Andrew wasn’t able to attend many of her matches at Purdue, he got “all the subscriptions that you needed to get” to keep tabs on her career from afar.

“I think she is a difference-maker,” he said. “I think consistently, whenever she’s in there, she’s been able to play middle and right side at Purdue. So whether it’s just deterring people from the level of their swing and trying to hit around the block, I think when she just has a presence and an impact on the game every single time that she’s out there, even regardless of whether the stats show it or not, I think that she really does.”

Andrew and Lizzie’s sports seasons won’t overlap, but Phil and Darby are thrilled they’re together at Kentucky, even for such a short time. Not only was the move the right one for Lizzie, it gives them another reason to return to Lexington, a city they’ve quickly grown to love. He’s excited to see his daughter come into her own as a Wildcat. She’s already gotten a small taste of the fan side of it.

“We went to dinner one night, and Andrew was not with us, and the waiter looked at Lizzie and said, ‘Are you Andrew Carr’s sister?’ And she’s like, ‘What? Do I look that much like him?’ And he was like, ‘Well, no, but I saw on social media that you transferred to Kentucky, and I saw on the reservation book that the table was reserved under Carr. So I kind of thought maybe this could be it.'”

Lizzie and Andrew haven’t lived in the same place since high school, but now, they’re just minutes away from each other most of the day. Although the two used to bicker as kids — according to Andrew, Lizzie was “forever the tattle tale” in the family, but “it’s hard to blame her surviving as the only girl” — they’re enjoying sliding back into the sibling roles as adults. Lizzie comes to Andrew’s apartment for dinners and to work on puzzles and Lego sets, a family pastime. He texts her to see how practices and lift sessions are going. She teases him for playing dumb when he’s feeling lazy. Typical sibling stuff, but at a very cool and unexpected moment in their lives.

“He’s the first to offer advice and be there to help you and care for you,” Lizzie said. “But now, he’s actually here. It’s not just, you know, he watched the game and then sent me a text, or said something, or whatever. He’s there for me and it’s now on a more personal level, which is cool.”

“As a parent, you love to have your kids at some point, if not always, get along with each other and be very good friends with each other,” Phil said. “And fortunately, I feel like our kids are that way.”

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Flush it away

Fittingly, the first time Lizzie and Andrew ran into each other after she moved to campus was in the training room. It’s been his second home since back spasms started bothering him around the first of the year. Thankfully, Carr has turned a corner with his back issues in recent weeks thanks to a new treatment plan featuring injections. He played 23 minutes in Kentucky’s loss at Ole Miss on Feb. 4, finishing with 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Foul trouble limited him vs. South Carolina but he still had 9 points (including a three), 3 rebounds, and a block in just 14 minutes. With each game, Carr is looking more and more like himself, which is good news for Kentucky heading into the final stretch of the season.

At the time of our conversation, Kentucky’s bye week, the status of Carr’s back was still very much in question. You could tell the injury and inability to practice with his teammates were weighing on him. Mark Pope said that he and Carr had several heart-to-hearts during that stretch. After sitting out the Vanderbilt game, Carr played just 89 seconds at Tennessee, Pope pulling him early because it didn’t feel right.

“Yeah, that was all me, man. I’m just a chicken. I’m a big chicken,” Pope said of his decision not to put Carr back in that night in Knoxville. “I was carrying so much stress. Andrew is such a warrior. He won’t talk about discomfort, he won’t talk about pain. Every single time you talk to him he’s like ‘I’m good to go! Let’s go!’ But he also needed a little bit of time just to heal.”

“It is definitely tricky,” Phil Carr said of his son’s injury. “But I think he’s managing it pretty well. He’s pretty level-headed about it. He’s recognizing the big picture and that he’s got to take care of himself – and so is the team, by the way. I think if they asked Andrew, if he wanted to play, he’d say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m playing.’ And it’s them saying, ‘No, not today,’ because he’d be like, Oh yeah, I’m definitely playing.”

The toilet handle is long gone — “It probably went out the door with the Little League baseball equipment” — but it still exists in Andrew’s mind, according to Lizzie.

“Andrew is very good at — even after a loss, he’ll look at you, will give you a little bit of a look for a second, and then he’s back to, you know, positive Andrew, or regular Andrew, whatever you want to consider it. And he’s very good at being able to turn the page and move on and flush it and be present in the moment.”

As important as flushing away the bad moments? Remember the good ones. When Andrew and Lizzie went to college, their dad encouraged them to start journaling. He suggested it when the two would call home and regale him and Darby with stories about their adventures, both on and off the court.

“He was like, ‘Can you please take a journal and just write down every single thing that’s happening and every single thing you’re learning and experiencing and everything because you’re going to look back 20 years from now, and you’re going to wish you remembered all the little details,'” Lizzie recalled.

“That was mostly a recognition of my lack of doing it,” Phil joked, recalling playing against David Robinson three different times when he was at Delaware and Robinson at Navy. “[I thought] that it would be cool for them to be able to have just a little snippet of who you played against and what it was like.”

Carr’s journal is likely already full of experiences from his time at Kentucky. He played significant roles in the wins over Duke, Gonzaga, and Florida. Now that he’s approaching full health, he can help steady the Cats as they head towards March. Brooks is confident that Carr’s best basketball is still to come.

“He can make some plays that we’ll be like, ‘Whoa.’ Some things he does, we don’t teach, and it’s just a matter of him playing basketball for however many years he’s played. And, we’re getting a chance to benefit and have a front-row seat to seeing Andrew at his greatness.”

Throughout his career, Carr has been fueled by his best performances. With eight regular-season games remaining and the SEC and NCAA Tournaments still to come, he’s ready to flush away this tough chapter and help the Cats reach new heights.

“All of those moments, they keep stacking on top of each other. Of course, this year with what we’ve been able to accomplish so far, that still just stacks up; it just leaves you wanting more and wanting more.”

Wherever the road ends, Phil will be there with the rest of the Carr cheering squad, waiting to embrace his son.

“I think he understands how quickly things go,” Andrew said of his dad. “And being able to look back at your son or your kids being able to accomplish different things, you realize how special the moments are, and that you’re going to be looking back at these moments. So, the advice that he would give me most is just being able to stay present and really embrace what’s going on in your life right now.”

That’s an especially poignant message given Carr’s current situation.

“Certainly. A lot going on, but just some amazing things that, like we said, would have never thought could be possible.”