LOGAN — It was barely 20 minutes prior to tipoff of an exhibition game against the University of Puget Sound in 2004 when a true freshman learned he was going to start his first collegiate game.
The short notice didn’t matter much.
The freshman, a returned missionary from Evanston, Wyoming, went off for a game-high 29 points on 12 of 15 shooting as Utah State men’s basketball routed the visiting team by over 50 points.
That freshman went on to become one of the best to ever wear an Aggie jersey, and that jersey was the focal point of proceedings when the Aggies faced Nevada on Saturday night.
In the midst of a season when Utah State leads the nation in 3-point shooting percentage, the Aggies took a moment to enshrine the one who did it better than anyone has ever done. Former Aggie star Jaycee Carroll stood on the court in front of over 9,000 fans as the athletic department unveiled his No. 20 jersey to be retired.
Carroll is the fourth player in Aggie basketball history to have his jersey retired in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, joining Greg Grant, Cornell Green and Marv Roberts. Aggie legends Wayne Estes and Bart Cook have their numbers retired.
Carroll’s name is spread across the Utah State record books, including career points (2,522), field goals made (880), field goals attempted (1,721), 3-point field goals made (369), 3-point field goals attempted (793), double-figure scoring games (121), games started (132) and total minutes played (4,596). He holds the second-highest 3-point shooting percentage in NCAA history at 46.5%.
Carroll received a number of accolades in his career, including the 2008 Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year and an AP All-American Honorable Mention. He led the Aggies to consecutive WAC championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances.
Carroll spoke with the media prior to the game and regaled nearly a dozen reporters with stories of his time in Logan. He had much to say about what his basketball career meant to him, which ended in 2021 with his retirement after 13 years playing in Europe, mostly with Real Madrid in Spain.
“For me, tonight’s an amazing honor. It just really felt like a very nice ending or cherry on the top of a basketball career, a dream I wanted to live.” — Jaycee Carroll
“For me, tonight’s an amazing honor,” Carroll said. “It just really felt like a very nice ending or cherry on the top of a basketball career, a dream I wanted to live.”
Carroll’s dominance of high school basketball in Wyoming didn’t matter much to recruiters, it seems. Despite averaging a whopping 39.4 points per game in his senior year at Evanston High School and being the Gatorade Player of the Year in Wyoming twice, he went virtually unrecruited by Division I programs.
“To be honest with you, if (the University of) Wyoming had made a 20-second phone call, I would have been there,” Carroll said.
When the Cowboys passed him by, Carroll and his parents drove to several colleges, including Idaho State, Weber State and Utah State.
When he arrived at Utah State, Carroll stood in the middle of the Spectrum in wonderment, and what followed was life changing. Spencer Nelson, another former Aggie great who Carroll described as “the loudest guy that I’ve ever met in a gym” walked down the stairs, introduced himself, and got Carroll into a pickup game with other athletes there.
Carroll’s first moment on the Spectrum court, a recruiting-oriented pickup game, proved a foreshadowing. On the first play, Carroll drained a 3-pointer off a screen.
Carroll was recruited to USU by coach Randy Rahe. Carroll said Rahe called him and said he had one scholarship for two players, and whoever said “yes” first gets it. Carroll accepted the offer hours later. Unknown to Carroll until a few years later, Rahe had no other player he was talking to.
Rahe later became a long-tenured head coach at Weber State and reportedly recruited Damian Lillard in the same way.
Once at Utah State, Carroll thrived in the community as well as he did on the court, committing to countless speaking engagements over the course of his career.
Carroll fondly remembered living in Mountain View Tower, an on-campus housing unit, driving his “little Ford Ranger” to the Spectrum with teammates Tai Wesley and Matt Formisano, both of home are over 6-foot-6, sitting in the front seat with him. Wesley would roll down the window and shout at passersby —“It’s game day!”
After playing at USU, Carroll went on to be a star in Europe, winning two Euro League championships with Real Madrid in Spain, along with countless other titles in the Spanish League and elsewhere.
Carroll has something he has in common with the team that current Aggie head coach Ryan Odom leads now. Utah State currently leads the nation in 3-point shooting percentage at 40.5%.
“They play a fun style of basketball,” Carroll said. “I love Coach (Stew) Morrill’s style, and it worked great for me, but this would have worked pretty great for me, too.”
One reporter couldn’t help but jokingly ask Carroll how many points he would score against Nevada that night, the Wolfpack being an old rival of his back in USU’s WAC days. “If they could find a way to sneak me in there,” Carroll said, “it wouldn’t be less than 30.”
