Sal Mentesana

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Rutgers University Head Men’s Basketball Coach Fred Hill today announced that Sal Mentesana will serve as assistant coach and that Craig Carter will serve as the program’s recruiting coordinator. Mentesana arrives in Piscataway with 15 seasons of collegiate head coaching experience. Carter, a standout guard at Rutgers from 1987-91, spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach with the Scarlet Knights.

“Sal Mentesana possesses a wealth of experience and we are very excited to welcome him into the Rutgers basketball family,” said Hill. “Sal and I have an established relationship and I’m confident that his veteran perspective will be of great benefit to our program.”

“Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program,” Hill continued. “Craig Carter has always been a tremendous ambassador for Rutgers Basketball. He has done a terrific job of building and cultivating relationships in the Metropolitan area. Craig will oversee and coordinate all of our recruiting efforts going forward.”

Mentesana most recently served as head coach of the Reading Railers of the Premier Basketball League. The team posted a 12-9 overall record during its lone season in 2008 and advanced to the PBL Eastern Division championship. A veteran at the collegiate level, Mentesana served as head coach at Lehigh University from 1996-2002 and as head coach at East Stroudburg University from 1987-1996. At Lehigh, his players earned All-Patriot League honors on 10 occasions. At East Stroudsburg, he led the Warriors to two Eastern Division titles and the school’s only Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship in 1990. He was named the PSAC Coach of the Year in the same year. He and the 1990 team were inducted into the ESU Hall of Fame in October 2007.

A 1969 graduate of Providence College, Mentesana began his coaching career at Notre Dame High School in his hometown of Easton, Pa., where he led the Crusaders to their first ever District XI Boys Basketball Championship. He then moved to the collegiate ranks, serving as assistant coach at both Lehigh and The College of William and Mary. At Lehigh, he worked alongside Fred Hill on Brian Hill’s staff.

Craig Carter

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Carter made two NCAA Tournament appearances in Scarlet and has 12 years of coaching experience. He returned to "The Banks" in 2006 after serving as an assistant coach at Siena. He was an integral member of a coaching staff that inherited a program that had won six games the previous year and improved to 15 wins in 2005-06.

Carter spent the 2004-05 season as the director of basketball operations at UMass, where he handled a myriad of duties. He coordinated of all aspects of team travel and helped establish the team's schedule and workout regiments. Prior to his stint at UMass, Carter spent a year as director of basketball operations at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 2003-04, where he was responsible for a wide array of duties within the basketball program.

Carter was an assistant coach at Elizabeth City State in North Carolina for two seasons (2001-03). Prior to his stint at ECS, he served as an assistant coach at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., from 1999-2001, while also working an elementary school teacher in the New York school system. Carter also served as an assistant coach at Norwalk Community College (Conn.) in 1998 and was a video coordinator with the WNBA's New York Liberty in the summer of 2001.

Carter earned a degree in English from Rutgers in 1992. He ranks tied for seventh all-time at Rutgers in assists (311) and tenth in career steals (123).