Nahziah Carter Leaves Program After Sexual Assault Findings Upheld

In a move that is not overly surprising given the last few months, Washington SF Nahziah Carter announced today that he will be leaving UW to pursue his professional career.

The team announced on October 16th that Carter had been suspended from all team activities indefinitely for a violation of the Intercollegiate Athletics Code of Conduct. No further details have been publicly released about the event(s) that led to the suspension. Carter soon after stated on his Twitter account that he would appeal the suspension and there were reports that the case would be heard this week. Based on this announcement it would suggest the appeal was not successful.

Before the suspension it was expected that Carter would be a major cog on this Husky team as one of two seniors and as the team’s leading returning scorer. He finished last season averaging 12.2 points and 4.9 rebounds per game with shooting splits of 43.3% FG, 36.6% 3pt, and 61.7% FT.

His jaw-dropping athleticism led to many high flying dunks during his 3-year UW career and despite a slow release he was an accurate 3-point shooter. Given the Huskies’ distressing 0-3 start there’s no question that from a pure basketball perspective that they would have been improved with Carter’s talent.

There was a point during last season when it looked like Naz might be able to play his way into becoming a 2nd round pick but ended up having a very inconsistent season. The hope was that a big year as a leading scorer might be able to return him to the status of a potentially draftable prospect. Instead, he gets to put zero additional reps on film and adds in the black eye of the suspension to his resume. More than likely Carter will have to try to work his way up through the G-league or start out playing overseas if he hopes to one day get to the NBA (or decide to pivot to his rap career). We hope he is eventually able to find success and that he’s able to learn from whatever caused the suspension that set him down this path.

EDIT 12/5 9:30p

The University of Washington confirmed tonight that Carter’s suspension was due to multiple sexual assault allegations which an administrative hearing officer ruled him to have committed in both occasions. Carter appealed both cases and the ruling was upheld each time. The two complaints were reportedly received in January and March of 2020 however final rulings did not come down until September and October a few weeks before the announcement of Carter’s suspension.

The timing of events ultimately make sense with the details released by the University today. The complete University process was allowed to play out before any type of discipline was administered. Ultimately, the program or the athletics department were not the ones to issue any official punishment. Carter was suspended for a full year by the school and was thus ineligible to compete no matter what. It’s also unclear whether the University would have released any further details if one of the victims did not take to social media to demand those details be shared.

Moving forward you can be certain that Coach Hopkins and Jen Cohen will be asked to be more forthcoming about this process. Now that the University has admitted that it found and upheld multiple sexual assault allegations one would certainly hope that they would be willing to condemn Carter’s actions and demonstrate a clear no tolerance policy. Quietly suspending Carter and then not even acknowledging the seriousness of the reasons behind it until shamed on social media is a terrible look. The program has to be held to a higher standard. The impact of Carter’s actions will have much greater long-term consequences than Quade Green’s academic ineligibility or the substandard product put forth on the court over the last 11 months. Let’s hope leadership acts like it from here on out.