Carroll was a gift for Utah State

When you watch Utah State's Jaycee Carroll play, it's hard to believe that he got just one Division I scholarship offer out of high school.

To this day, he admits he still doesn't quite understand why so many people passed on him despite the fact he averaged more than 30 points a game at Evanston High School in Wyoming.

"The one conclusion I came to is that they didn't respect the kind of competition I played against in Wyoming," said Carroll in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon from Logan, Utah. "I went to Colorado and Utah and did the same things there (to teams)."

And, you can be sure that coaches around the country are kicking themselves for not taking a chance on the skinny white kid from Wyoming. USU coach Stew Morrill was glad to get Carroll then, and he's even happier now.

Carroll entered the season as the seventh-best scorer in USU history, and he's moved all the way up to No. 2 with 2,056 points. He needs 72 points to surpass Greg Grant's 2,127 career points. He ranks in the top 10 in 12 different offensive categories in the school's record book.

He currently leads the WAC in scoring (21.3 a game), free-throw shooting (94 percent) and 3-point shooting (50.5).

"Everybody thought he was a Division II player," Morrill said. "I had no idea he would be this good. He's a self-made player. He's as good an offensive scorer as I've had in 22 years as a head coach.

"He's going to score; he's going to score until he's 50 and playing in a city league."

Morrill's self-made comment is apt. Carroll is a gym rat in the true sense of the word. While friends wasted away their summers in high school, he spent time in the gym putting up shots.

"I started between my freshman and sophomore year," Carroll said. "The women's coach from Montana State said he made his girls shoot 50 shots a day everyday during the summer.

"That same summer, the high school coach wanted us to shoot 500 a day. I was the only one dumb enough to do it. I shot 10,000 that summer. I was the only one to get a T-shirt."

That was just the tip of the iceberg, however. Carroll designed various workouts with one goal in mind - to make 20,000 shots during an off-season. He would shoot a minimum of 500 shots a day, and when the summer ended, he had made 20,010 shots out of 24,963 attempts.

When Carroll first started at Utah State, he was strictly a 3-point shooter. The Aggies had two good players in Spencer Nelson and Nate Harris.

"My freshman and sophomore years, I was a product of the (Utah State) system," Carroll said. "I was successful because of the system. I was the third option. I would just stand out there and make jump shots."

His first two seasons, more than half of his field goal attempts were of the 3-point variety. A year ago, he had 486 field goal attempts, but only 192 were from beyond the arc. He made efforts to drive the ball to the basket and pull up for a jump shot instead of a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer, which also helped lead to 170 free-throw attempts last season.

He has been the Aggies' go-to guy since his sophomore season. He relishes that role and the responsibility that comes with it.

"I love it," he said. "I love being the guy my teammates look to when we need a basket. Other players are more confident in a complementary role which is just as important."

The key thing, according to Morrill, is that Carroll has improved as a player every year he's been in the program.

"Defensively I'm more solid," Carroll said. "Offensively I'm passing more (and better) where in the past I may have forced up a shot. Now I pass for an easy basket."

Morrill was hoping that Carroll wouldn't have to score as much this year, but in the early going that wasn't the case, as the new players were slow to come around offensively.

"We thought we would have a lot more offensive weapons," Carroll said. "Coach Morrill and I thought we could be a good team with me scoring 16 or 17, something like that. It ended up being different.

"That was OK. I like having the ball. The other weapons are really coming around now. The last game I think I had 14 and another guy had 14. Our leading scorer had 15."

•••

When you watch Carroll play, he reminds you of the Energizer Bunny because he's always in motion. His motor never stops, and you'll never see the Aggies' 6-2 senior take a play off. His endurance and motor are unmatched in the WAC and maybe even the country.

He is a freak of nature. Carroll said the secret goes back to his middle school days where he swam, wrestled and played basketball at the same time. It's hard enough to be a swimmer let alone throwing in the other two. Basketball may have been the less-taxing of the three.

"Those were crazy days," Carroll said. "I'd finish school and go swim. Then I would go to wrestling (practice) and then go to Junior Jazz (practice). I have good genes I guess."

He could probably be a track star if he wanted, too.

Morrill likes to tell the story about pre-season conditioning, and Carroll's eye-popping performance.

"We do a 2-mile run and a mile run, and we do it for time," Morrill said. "Every player has to run a certain time. Jaycee ran a 4:30. Are you kidding me? A basketball player running a 4:30?"

Coaches around the league watch him go, and they are amazed.

"He's highly unusual," San Jose State coach George Nessman said at the WAC Media Day back in October. "I was watching the Knicks play on ESPN Classic, and it was like watching Bill Bradley run around, and that's a high compliment.

"To me, tough, it's his toughness. There are guys grabbing him and holding him as he comes off screens. He's really tough."

Morrill agreed.

"He is a tough kid," the veteran Utah State coach said. "He's a great competitor. People beat the crap out of him, but he doesn't get upset, he just keeps playing."

•••

Carroll decided to test the NBA Draft process last year, though admittedly he didn't get as much exposure as he'd hoped.

"It looked like an opportunity to get some workouts, some experience and some attention," Carroll said. "I would have liked to have gone to Orlando (NBA Pre-Draft Camp)"

That, for some reason, didn't materialize. The only team to give him a workout was the hometown Utah Jazz.

"They said I can score," Carroll said. "They said I could play shooting guard, but that I would have to be good enough to be a second or third point guard on a team which is all right. They said I could play on their Summer League team if no other opportunities open up."

Some players might have sulked, but not Carroll. Rather, he may have a bit of a chip on his shoulder. No doubt he would like to show the NBA scouts who see him that he can play the game.

Morrill said one NBA scout told him "He can score his ball."

That he can, and whether it's in the NBA or overseas, Carroll will definitely make some money playing this game

•••

Carroll is excited about Saturday's game at Nevada. For the past three years, he was dogged by Nevada's Kyle Shiloh. Their match-ups were legendary, and were definitely a game within the game.

Carroll will see two semi-new faces this weekend. Shiloh has graduated, and Carroll is glad of that.

"It will be like a breath of fresh air," Carroll said. "I'm sure they'll have some guy that's been chasing around a redshirt in practice. I don't expect the experience to be much different."

More than likely, the job of defending Carroll, the WAC's Preseason Player of the Year, will fall to Brandon Fields and Lyndale Burleson. The latter played extensively against Utah State when Shiloh suffered an injury during the opening round of the WAC Tournament last March.

"Lyndale is more physical than Kyle was," Carroll said. "I didn't get quite as much separation because of that. Kyle did a good job. It was almost like he was baiting me into thinking I was open, but he would always be there."

Carroll would score points, but Shiloh made him work harder than anybody else in the WAC for them.

No doubt that will be Nevada's goal this weekend.

• Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com, or by calling (775) 881-1281

THE CARROLL FILE

Position: Guard

Year in school: Senior

Height/weight: 6-2, 175

Major: Spanish