Marcus Carr, Canada’s all-time NCAA points and assists leader

One of Canada’s oldest NCAA basketball records has been broken.

Texas Longhorns guard Marcus Carr (Toronto, Ont.) has surpassed former Niagara Purple Eagles all-time great Juan Mendez (Montreal, Que.) and Gonzaga Bulldogs point guard Andrew Nembhard (Aurora, Ont.) to become Canada’s all-time NCAA college basketball division I points and assists leader.

Carr, a graduate student in his fifth season of college basketball and a beneficiary of the extra COVID-19 year, entered his final season 465 points shy of Mendez’s 2210 career points total and 102 assists behind Nembhard’s recently established mark of 691 career assists.

On the road for a February 13th, 2023 match-up against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, the 151st game of Carr’s career. At the 13:48 mark in the first-half, the six-foot-two guard rewarded teammate Brock Cunningham for his offensive rebound to eclipse Nembhard’s record with 692 career assists.

Tonight, eight days later, on February 21st, needing only one-point to become the all-time Canadian points leader. The 24-year-old (June 6, 1999) ran the lane hard and knocked down a right corner baseline three-pointer, the 259th of his career to break the 18-year-old record to become Canada’s all-time points leader with 2213 total career points.

Carr added ten more points, finished the game with 13 and five assists to push his career totals to 2223 points and 704 assists as the No. 6 Longhorns cruised past the No. 23 Iowa State Cyclones 72-54.

Marcus Carr NCAA points and assists per season totals

In his lone season with the Pittsburgh Panthers, Carr scored 320 points and dished out the third most assists among freshmen in program history. Finishing the season with 129 assists in 32 games.

During his sophomore season with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, Carr added 478 points and set Minnesota’s single-season assist record with 207 assists in 31 games.

By his junior season, Carr topped the coveted 1000+ point mark, scoring a career-best 563 points to go along with 141 assists in 29 games. As a senior and his first season with the Texas Longhorns, Carr added 386 and 117 assists in 34 games.

Through 28 games in his fifth and final season, Carr has poured in an additional 476 points and handed out 114 assists.

The Longhorns have three regular season conference games remaining, plus the Big 12 Championship tournament. A likely two or three seed, Texas is expected to make a deep 2023 March Madness tournament run which is likely to push Carr’s record scoring and assist numbers closer to 2400 points, 800 assists and over the 160 career game mark.

History of all-time Canadian NCAA scoring record

Canadians have been playing NCAA division I men’s college basketball since the 1920s. In that span, over one-thousand Canadian basketball players have played in the NCAA, but only four players have scored over 2000 points in their collegiate basketball careers.

Marcus Carr (2223), Juan Mendez (2210), Andrew Nicholson (2103), Koby McEwen (2080).

Both Mendez and Nicholson played the traditional four seasons. Like wise, both, McEwen and Carr were granted an additional year as COVID-19 wrecked havoc throughout the 2020-21 college basketball season.

Washington Huskies legend, Bob Houbregs (Vancouver, BC), a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, a consensus All-America and the only Canadian basketball player to score three 40+ point games during his career, held the Canadian NCAA scoring record for 43 years. Houbregs scored 1774 points in 91 games with the Huskies from 1951 to 1953.

Former Canisius Golden Griffins all-time great Michael Meeks (Brampton, Ont.), the second all-time leading scorer in Golden Griffin’s history, ended Houbregs’s 43-year grip by scoring 1827 points in 119 games from 1993 to 1996.

Mendez, Canada’s best kept basketball secret, took over the record when he became the first Canadian in NCAA basketball history to score over 2000+ points. The six-foot-eight forward finished with, 2210 career-points in 123 games from 2002 to 2005.

History of all-time Canadian NCAA assist record

Former Villanova Wildcats six-foot-three point-guard, Stewart Granger (Montreal, Que.) became Canada’s all-time NCAA assist leader by racking up 595 assists in 125 games from 1980 to 1983. Granger led the Wildcats to four straight NCAA appearances and is still Villanova’s second all-time assist leader.

Between his time in Minnesota and Syracuse from 1979 to 1983, Leo Rautins (Toronto, Ont.) a versatile six-foot-eight forward with Magic Johnson resemblances, dished out 529 assists in 112 games.

Nine years later, from 1991 to 1994, six-foot-three guard Matthew Hildebrand (Landmark, MB.) topped Rautins and nearly took down Granger’s record with 583 total assists in 117 games for the Liberty Flames.

All of that changed, when six-foot-five point-guard Andrew Nembhard entered the college basketball scene. From 2019 to 2022 and between his time with the Florida Gators and the Gonzaga Bulldogs, Nembhard dissected offences with precision passes to shatter the former 39-year-old all-time assist mark.

Nembhard dished out 691 assists and became the first Canadian to amass over 600+ career assists, doing so in 131 games.

Other Marcus Carr all-time Canadian NCAA records

As the curtain closes and the last few chapters on the Marcus Carr college basketball era unfold, it’s fair to say there are few other records that will likely be untouched for a very long time. Games played (154) and started (146), most minutes (5035) and most field goals attempted (1795).

For contextual purposes, no other Canadian NCAA basketball player has ever played 5000+ career minutes. McEwen is the next closest with 4704 in 150 games. As for total attempted shots? Don’t expect anybody to come close anytime soon. McEwen’s 1513 field-goal attempts are a distant second place with Carr’s college basketball meter still running.

Stay on top of Carr’s season totals and all the Canadian NCAA players stats’ with the 2022-23 BasketballBuzz NCAA stats tracker.