LIVING HIS DREAM
7/25/2025 10:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Carr, Team USA go for gold versus Brazil at World University Games
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Cameron Carr didn't grow up wanting to be a cowboy, an astronaut or even a pro basketball player, for that matter.
The son of former NBA player Chris Carr, Cameron wrote down his goals on a sticky note when he was in the fifth grade and put them on the mirror in his bathroom: I want to play for Team USA and win a gold medal.
"I think everybody's dreamed of it since they were a kid," said Carr, a 6-5 sophomore wing who has averaged 16.6 points in helping Team USA – represented by Baylor – advance to Saturday's 1 p.m. CT gold-medal game for the World University Games in Essen, Germany. "That was my goal. I had that on my mirror until I moved out of my house to go to prep school. Now that I have the opportunity, and it's right in front of me, it's truly a blessing. I want it so badly."
Although he sat out last season as a mid-year transfer from Tennessee, Carr was the lone player returning to a Baylor team that was largely woven together through transfer portal additions. The seven-player rotation in Germany includes transfers Dan Skillings Jr. (Cincinnati), Obi Agbim (Wyoming), JJ White (Omaha), Caden Powell (Rice), Isaac Williams IV (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and Carr, along with borrowing 6-10 forward Samson Aletan from Yale.
"Man, we've got some dawgs!" Carr said. "I think we have some toughness, and we have each other's backs. I can give you an example. (Thursday), I went down, and one of (Lithuania's) players was standing over me and talking trash. But Caden showed up and moved him out of the way. They gave him a little warning for it, but it showed that he's got my back. And guess what, I've got his back. We might be emotional at times, but it's because we want it so badly."
After a relatively easy run through group play and a dominant 102-83 quarterfinal win over Finland, USA had to play from behind for the majority of Thursday's 72-64 semifinal win over Lithuania, trailing by as many as 13 just six minutes into the first quarter.
The Americans were down by just four at the break, 35-31, despite shooting just 33% from the floor, 2-for-11 from outside the arc and 9-for-19 from the line.
"We've been scoring the ball very consistent," said Carr, who narrowly missed a double-double, finishing with 14 points and nine boards. "Today, it just wasn't falling for us as much. And I can credit Lithuania for that, too. It's hard to shoot over length. But we definitely locked in, and we had to have a come-to-Jesus moment and realize, 'Hey, offense isn't going to win this us this game. We have to show some grit and really lock in on defense and show we can guard.'''
Easily the tallest team in the 16-team tournament, the Lithuanians started four players at 6-7 or higher, including 6-8 shooting guard Gytis Nemeiksa. Point guard Dominykas Stenionis, at 5-10, is the only player on their roster that's shorter than 6-4.
"Lithuania, a lot of size, a lot of length," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "They did a good job making us stagnate . . . making us take contested shots. Fresh legs, that defense wouldn't work. But tired legs, it was really good."
One thing the USA team did well against Lithuania was get to the line, taking 19 free throws in the first half alone. Missing them was the problem. The Americans were just 9-of-19 in the first half and 17-of-30 for the game.
Carr, who has struggled in that area the whole tournament, missed five of his first six free throws and finished 7-of-14.
"Free throws were a struggle. I can take that one personally and say I didn't do a good job making free throws," he said. "It doesn't really fell on anybody else on the team. I've got to make free throws. At the end of the day, they're free."
Trailing 57-50 going into the fourth quarter, USA completely flipped the game with a stifling defense that forced three turnovers and held Lithuania to just seven points on 3-for-16 shooting.
"Defense travels," Carr said. "At the end of the day, we can guard. I think that has really been good for us to show that over and over again."
In the pivotal 18-2 run that turned a seven-point deficit into a nine-point lead, the Americans tied it at 59-59 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Agbim and White and then took their first lead of the game when Agbim fed Skillings for a layup.
Skillings, who scored seven of his game-high 17 points in the final period, finished off the run with his only made 3-pointer to push the lead to 68-59 with 2:59 left.
"That's my roommate, so I was glad to see him succeed and have a really good fourth quarter," Carr said of Skillings, who had a double-double with 13 rebounds. "He was in foul trouble early, but we knew he was going to get it going at some point, and it was going to roll for him. They can't keep him out of the paint. I kept telling him, 'Hey, bro, you might not have it going right now, but it's going to find you. Take advantage of it.'''
In Saturday's 1 p.m. CT gold-medal game, USA faces a Brazil team that rallied to beat the host Germany team, 83-78. This is a rematch of a game Baylor lost to Brazil, 77-73, three years ago at the inaugural GLOBL JAM in Toronto.
"In fact, there's a couple guys (from that 2022 Brazil team) that are still in college, I guess," Drew said. "These are probably the two most athletic teams. Brazil is one of the oldest, if not the oldest team here. The great thing is we get a day off, so both teams should be a little fresher. And that, hopefully, means a couple more threes from us. That's something we strive off of."
Fulfilling his dreams, Carr said it would "be great to walk out with a gold ring around my neck."
"It's truly a blessing," he said. "I'm always going to go back to that. I've always prayed for this and dreamed of this."
Baylor Bear Insider
Cameron Carr didn't grow up wanting to be a cowboy, an astronaut or even a pro basketball player, for that matter.
The son of former NBA player Chris Carr, Cameron wrote down his goals on a sticky note when he was in the fifth grade and put them on the mirror in his bathroom: I want to play for Team USA and win a gold medal.
"I think everybody's dreamed of it since they were a kid," said Carr, a 6-5 sophomore wing who has averaged 16.6 points in helping Team USA – represented by Baylor – advance to Saturday's 1 p.m. CT gold-medal game for the World University Games in Essen, Germany. "That was my goal. I had that on my mirror until I moved out of my house to go to prep school. Now that I have the opportunity, and it's right in front of me, it's truly a blessing. I want it so badly."
Although he sat out last season as a mid-year transfer from Tennessee, Carr was the lone player returning to a Baylor team that was largely woven together through transfer portal additions. The seven-player rotation in Germany includes transfers Dan Skillings Jr. (Cincinnati), Obi Agbim (Wyoming), JJ White (Omaha), Caden Powell (Rice), Isaac Williams IV (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and Carr, along with borrowing 6-10 forward Samson Aletan from Yale.
"Man, we've got some dawgs!" Carr said. "I think we have some toughness, and we have each other's backs. I can give you an example. (Thursday), I went down, and one of (Lithuania's) players was standing over me and talking trash. But Caden showed up and moved him out of the way. They gave him a little warning for it, but it showed that he's got my back. And guess what, I've got his back. We might be emotional at times, but it's because we want it so badly."
After a relatively easy run through group play and a dominant 102-83 quarterfinal win over Finland, USA had to play from behind for the majority of Thursday's 72-64 semifinal win over Lithuania, trailing by as many as 13 just six minutes into the first quarter.
The Americans were down by just four at the break, 35-31, despite shooting just 33% from the floor, 2-for-11 from outside the arc and 9-for-19 from the line.
"We've been scoring the ball very consistent," said Carr, who narrowly missed a double-double, finishing with 14 points and nine boards. "Today, it just wasn't falling for us as much. And I can credit Lithuania for that, too. It's hard to shoot over length. But we definitely locked in, and we had to have a come-to-Jesus moment and realize, 'Hey, offense isn't going to win this us this game. We have to show some grit and really lock in on defense and show we can guard.'''
Easily the tallest team in the 16-team tournament, the Lithuanians started four players at 6-7 or higher, including 6-8 shooting guard Gytis Nemeiksa. Point guard Dominykas Stenionis, at 5-10, is the only player on their roster that's shorter than 6-4.
"Lithuania, a lot of size, a lot of length," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "They did a good job making us stagnate . . . making us take contested shots. Fresh legs, that defense wouldn't work. But tired legs, it was really good."
One thing the USA team did well against Lithuania was get to the line, taking 19 free throws in the first half alone. Missing them was the problem. The Americans were just 9-of-19 in the first half and 17-of-30 for the game.
Carr, who has struggled in that area the whole tournament, missed five of his first six free throws and finished 7-of-14.
"Free throws were a struggle. I can take that one personally and say I didn't do a good job making free throws," he said. "It doesn't really fell on anybody else on the team. I've got to make free throws. At the end of the day, they're free."
Trailing 57-50 going into the fourth quarter, USA completely flipped the game with a stifling defense that forced three turnovers and held Lithuania to just seven points on 3-for-16 shooting.
"Defense travels," Carr said. "At the end of the day, we can guard. I think that has really been good for us to show that over and over again."
In the pivotal 18-2 run that turned a seven-point deficit into a nine-point lead, the Americans tied it at 59-59 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Agbim and White and then took their first lead of the game when Agbim fed Skillings for a layup.
Skillings, who scored seven of his game-high 17 points in the final period, finished off the run with his only made 3-pointer to push the lead to 68-59 with 2:59 left.
"That's my roommate, so I was glad to see him succeed and have a really good fourth quarter," Carr said of Skillings, who had a double-double with 13 rebounds. "He was in foul trouble early, but we knew he was going to get it going at some point, and it was going to roll for him. They can't keep him out of the paint. I kept telling him, 'Hey, bro, you might not have it going right now, but it's going to find you. Take advantage of it.'''
In Saturday's 1 p.m. CT gold-medal game, USA faces a Brazil team that rallied to beat the host Germany team, 83-78. This is a rematch of a game Baylor lost to Brazil, 77-73, three years ago at the inaugural GLOBL JAM in Toronto.
"In fact, there's a couple guys (from that 2022 Brazil team) that are still in college, I guess," Drew said. "These are probably the two most athletic teams. Brazil is one of the oldest, if not the oldest team here. The great thing is we get a day off, so both teams should be a little fresher. And that, hopefully, means a couple more threes from us. That's something we strive off of."
Fulfilling his dreams, Carr said it would "be great to walk out with a gold ring around my neck."
"It's truly a blessing," he said. "I'm always going to go back to that. I've always prayed for this and dreamed of this."
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