For Carter, who averaged 8.6 points per game and six rebounds per game during his 2015-16 season with UNLV, he said between early October and February he was in a constant state of not knowing what was next for him.

“I’m injured, I’m away from my family, I’m in a place where I can’t even play basketball,” Carter said. “It was a really trying time for me as a person and I learned a lot about myself.”

Carter was granted a sixth year of eligibility, something that’s rarely seen in college athletics, which he found out when he was at home in Las Vegas rehabbing his knee.

“I was filled with joy,” Carter said. “To be back around these guys, this group, this program, this city, it’s special to be apart of this team in particular, is a blessing for me.”

Head coach Tom Izzo said during media day on Oct. 11, that associate head coach Dwayne Stephens said Stephens was “amazed of how fast” Schilling has recovered.

Izzo did say he doesn’t know how long Carter will be able to play or how much he will play, because this is Carter’s second knee injury within a year.

Izzo said Carter and Schilling give the Spartans different looks, with Carter being a “Draymond Green intelligent guy” and having a “great feel for the game,” with Schilling being “a great post defender.”

“I promise you this when I say it. I think he'll will be one of the best ball screen defenders, not only in Michigan State history, but in the country,” Izzo said. “One of our weaknesses last year was defensively guarding ball screens. I think he’s gonna give that a big lift.”

Schilling said he’s 100 percent now and has been practicing with no issues.

“I feel like I haven’t lost anything as far as from the injury,” Schilling, who’s averaged 3.8 points per game and 3.1 rebounds per game during his time at MSU, said.

Carter said he’s about “85 to 90 percent” and is almost ready to go, and is starting to participate in everything except live contact.

However, Carter said it’s not the physical aspect that’s preventing him to participate more in practice, it’s the mental aspect.

“You go through injuries like such, it takes a toll on you mentally, it takes a toll when you want to go in to a situation in which you’ve been injured before and you’re kind of reluctant or hesitant to back into the situation,” Carter said. “For me, it’s just taking it a day at a time. I kind of call it my little checklist.”

Carter said it helped having Schilling go through the physical and mental struggles of long-term, intense injuries.

“One day when I didn’t feel like giving my all in rehabbing … he would push me through it,” Carter said. “There was days where he didn’t want come get shots up at 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning before we had practice, and I would drag him in here with me and say, ‘This is what we need to do, this is our last year together, our last year in college basketball. We need to make our mark.’”

Schilling reflected that having someone like Carter, who’s been through two major knee injuries, helped him deal with his own mental struggles of being injured.

“Toughest part was sitting there watching every game, being on the bench,” Schilling said. “I tried to help vocally as much as I could, especially to the young guys.”

Carter said having Schilling rehab with him, “definitely gave me a friend when I needed one most.”

“I hated for Gav to go through it,” Carter said. “I wish I could’ve gone through it for both of us.”