Catching up with...Former Notre Dame basketball player Matt Carroll

Matt Carroll had a big offseason, signing a six-year, $27 million deal to remain with the Charlotte Bobcats. It also gave the former Irish standout security, something he craved as he bounced around the NBDL a few years ago. As the NBA season gets underway this week, we figured we'd catch up with one of the Irish's NBA players.

Insights: What's been going on in your life?
Matt Carroll: It's been a great and rewarding journey for me. But it's been a tough journey, going up and down from the minor leagues to the NBA. Trying to make it in the NBA, it wasn't an easy thing. Mentally and, just always being ready to be pursuing what I wanted to do and I knew I wanted to play in the NBA. Each time I accomplished one of the goals I set for myself, I set another one. If it was to make the team once I made the team I wanted to play. If it was wanting to play, then it would be being a consistent player and last year it was becoming a starter. I push myself whenever I accomplished something that I did.

Insights: What was the feeling when you signed your contract over the summer? It means you'll be around for a while.
MC: Well, for me, it was something I've never had. It was an exciting and rewarding feeling for me, to think to myself that I was just trying to make a team a few years ago and to find out a team wanted to sign me for six years, it was like a dream come true to be honest. Now it's all sunk in now and I want to continue the same work ethic I have in the past and not to get complacent just because I have secruity I never had before.

Insights: When (Adam) Morrison went down, did you see it as a chance to establish yourself even further?
MC: For me, in the beginning of my career jumping around from team-to-team, it's hard to establish yourself. Now, even more than basketball, to get to establish myself here in the community in Charlotte and to be able to reach out and do some things because I know I'm going to be here, it's been a big thrill to me because those are the things I enjoy doing down here.

Insights: Do you feel more pressure now because Morrison got hurt?
MC: I don't. I don't feel more pressure. I think I'll have more responsibility and more of a role and it'll be tougher without Adam because he's a big part of our team, but we've got to pick up the slack. I've been on a lot of teams where guys have gotten hurt and you've just got to rally the troops and keep playing. There's nothing you can do about it.

Insights: When you signed your contract, did you think back to those times when you were bouncing up and down? Was there a breaking point for you where if I get sent down one more time I have to find somewhere else?
MC: There were times I was close, times I thought about going overseas and going maybe a different route. For some reason I always knew this is where I wanted to be and that this is where I belonged and I just kept working for it. I didn't know if it was ever going to happen. A lot of it you have to be in the right situation and you have to have a little luck go your way but at the end of the day if you get a situation that comes up and you get a little lucky because of the hard work you put in before that and the preparation to give yourself that opportunity.

Insights: How close were you to going overseas? Like one more month and then I'm going to do it?
MC: It was probably within a few days. I had a couple offers from some pretty good teams over there and I was in the NBDL. I was there for over a month and was leading the league in scoring and playing as well as I could and still wasn't getting called up so I had a decision to make. Should I go for a good opportunity and pretty good financial situations over in Europe and I was close to making it happen. Then I decided not to.

Insights: So you were a couple days from going over?
MC: Yeah. What happens is that when you get an opportunity from Europe, they only give you a few days and if you don't take it they give the situation to someone else. They don't have like a two-week window where you can decide if you want to go.

Insights: Do you think about that much, that if the NBA offer had come a few days after, you could be in Europe right now?
MC: Yeah. Easily. That's why, when I look back on my situation, how critical every little decision is that you make. If I made one little decision differently than I had, I might not have been in a situation like in Charlotte where I got a chance to play. It happens where guys get hurt and you get more time to play. You never know. Who knows, when you see other guys, first-round picks, lottery picks in the NBA and they never sign a deal after their first contract, you just weren't in the right situation or they didn't work out like they did for other people, you know.

-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette