Know The Bro: Matt Carlino

BYU guard Matt Carlino comes from a basketball family. Matt’s dad played for Arizona State and his unlce for Arizona. His uncle also coached under Rick Majerus at the University of Utah.

As a high school sophomore in Arcadia, Arizona, Carlino made a verbal commitment to play for the Indiana Hoosiers. Moving to Indiana for his junior year, Carlino not only excelled in basketball but also completed both his junior and senior year high school requirements, allowing him to graduate a year early. Plans to play for Indiana changed however, due to coaching changes and NCAA infractions, and Matt found himself heading west to play for UCLA.

Carlino’s time with the Bruins was short, however, as he felt that UCLA was not the right place to be. His transfer options included UNLV, St. Mary’s, Butler and BYU. Ultimately he chose to attend BYU- partly due to the Cougars successful season that year, being led by Jimmer Fredette and Brandon Davies, and partly because being at BYU was "just a good fit for me all around."

Due to the timing of the transfer Carlino redshirted his first year at BYU in addition to missing the first ten games of his freshman season. Since then, Matt has played for the Cougars in every game- 72 so far.

Last year Carlino made his mark as the team leader in both assists and steals, finishing the season with 171 assists (more than Tyler Haws and Brandon Davies combined) and 64 steals, the third and fourth most in a season in BYU history, respectively.

This year looks to be no different. Matt currently leads the team with 61 assists and 25 steals. He is also the second leading scorer, averaging 16 points per game.

The Cougars (8-4) next game is against Oregon (9-0) on December 21, tip-off at 8:30 pm.