Carmen Wallace grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and attended Tower Hill School, a small private school where basketball was not supposed to produce Division I talent. Wallace made it produce something extraordinary. Over four years at Tower Hill, he scored 2,004 career points — the third-highest total in Delaware state history at the time, trailing only Brandywine’s Dexter Boney and Wilmington’s Erik Edwards. As a senior in 1993, he averaged 25.5 points per game, shot 58.2 percent from the field, 43.8 percent from three, and added 190 rebounds and 96 blocked shots at 6’5. He led Tower Hill to a 40–8 record over his final two seasons. The Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association voted him the 1993 Boys Basketball Player of the Year. He was first-team All-State for the second time.
Duke offered Wallace a basketball scholarship, and he took it. A kid from a small Delaware prep school was headed to Cameron Indoor Stadium to play for Coach K. It was an unlikely leap — from Tower Hill’s gymnasium to the ACC — but Wallace had earned it with 2,004 points and a state Player of the Year trophy.