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Columbia, Mo. – University of Missouri Head Basketball Coach Frank Haith announced the hiring of Rick Carter as the team’s newest assistant coach on Tuesday. A quick riser in the collegiate coaching world, Carter comes to Mizzou following a four-year stint at Western Michigan University and boasts strong ties to the Michigan high school and AAU circuits.

Carter has spent the last nine years working in college basketball. A 2002 graduate of Michigan State, he got his start as a graduate assistant at his alma mater under Tom Izzo from 2003-06 and helped coordinate several aspect of the Spartan’s day-to-day operations, including video exchange, practice planning, scouting operations and the academic support program. Michigan State advanced to the 2005 NCAA Final Four during his second season and the Spartans qualified for three consecutive NCAA Tournaments in his three years.

“I am excited to welcome Rick Carter into our basketball family,” Head Coach Frank Haith said. “Rick is a talented coach and a relentless recruiter. He has a great basketball background working for Steve Hawkins at Western Michigan, Ed Cooley at Fairfield and of course Tom Izzo at Michigan State and he has connections to a couple members of our staff, so I really liked the instant fit.”

Following his stint in East Lansing, Mich., Carter spent two seasons working for Ed Cooley (now head coach at Providence) at Fairfield. In his first season, Carter served as the Director of Basketball Operations and worked with current Tiger assistant coach Tim Fuller. Carter was elevated to a full-time assistant coach in 2007-08 and helped Fairfield to a fifth place finish in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with an 11-7 league record. The Stags finished above .500 in (MAAC) league play each season with Carter on staff, marking just the seventh and eighth times that had occurred in program history.

“I’m so excited to join Coach Haith’s program here at Missouri,” Carter said. “The history and tradition at Mizzou makes this one of the best jobs in America and of course I know all about the great players from the state of Michigan that had standout careers as Tigers, including Doug Smith, whose number is retired here. I want to thank Coach Haith and the administration for this opportunity and I want to thank everyone at Western Michigan for the four great years in Kalamazoo.”

While at Western Michigan, Carter used his impressive AAU ties to recruit the school’s all-time leading scorer, David Kool. Named Mr. Basketball in the state of Michigan as a high school senior, Kool twice led the Mid-American Conference in scoring and he was named MAC Player of the Year and an All-American as a senior in 2010, averaging 21.6 points per game. Kool was the MAC’s Freshman of the Year in 2007 and was named the MAC Player of the Decade by Rivals.com. Overall WMU won a pair of MAC West titles during Carter’s four seasons and advanced to postseason play in 2011 with a 21-13 overall mark.

Carter began his coaching career with the Michigan Mustangs in 2000. He spent four seasons with the AAU powerhouse (2000-03, 2006) and used his connections to recruit both Kool and Michael Redell to Western Michigan.

A native of Grand Blanc, Mich., Carter graduated from Michigan State with a degree in business management.