Q&A with Stew Morrill
Ahead of Jaycee Carroll’s jersey retirement, honoring Utah State Men’s Basketball’s all-time leading scorer who played from 2004 to 2008, the Utah Statesman called Stew Morrill, USU head coach from 1999 to 2015, to ask him about Carroll.
Statesman: What was your first impression of Jaycee? Did you think he would be as good as he was?
Photo by John Zsiray Utah State Head Coach Stew Morrill takes up a complaint with an official during the Gossner Foods Classic championship game
Morrill: Well, we, you know, had heard about Jaycee from different people when he was playing in Evanston. And it’s kind of a funny story really — I sent an assistant up there to watch him, and assistant came back said, ‘Geez, I don’t know coach. It’s pretty small-time basketball, as far as small town, and you know, this and that and the other. Hard to tell if he could play at our level.’ And I said, ‘Well, what did he do?’ And he said, ‘Well, he had 35, and, you know, can really shoot the ball.’ And I said, ‘Well, what did you want him to do?’ So I sent another assistant up and he came back and kind of said the same thing, and he had 50 that night. So I pretty much said, ‘If a guy can get 50 in a church game, he’s doing something right, so we need to take this further.’ And eventually brought him to campus. And our players fell in love with his energy and his ability to shoot the ball, and one thing led to another — he went on his mission first, of course — and we got him and that was a good deal for us. I know, you know, Wyoming did not pursue him, and that was a big mistake. And being a Wyoming kid, he very easily could have ended up there.
Just had a fabulous career. I mean, as good of a pure shooter as I ever coached. And once when he was playing overseas, I heard someone say he’s one of the best shooters, if not the best shooter in the world. And that’s quite a statement by him for someone to make, but he had an amazing athletic ability and an amazing talent in terms of being able to score.
Q: What was your favorite on-court memory with Jaycee?
A: I don’t know if I have a favorite memory. I think of him in terms of the whole package. I mean, you could count on him to play as hard as he could play. Very seldom got tired. He came back off his mission and ran — that may be one of my favorite memories. Coming back off his mission, and we always ran the mile for time. And a lot of times when returned missionaries — as you probably know — are not in great shape. He just blew everybody away and ran, you know, four-something minute mile.
I don’t remember ever taking him out of the game cause he was tired. You know, maybe he’s a little frustrated at a time or two, that didn’t happen either hardly ever. Time or two taken him out for that. He could play as long as any player I ever coached in 29 years as a head coach, and then as hard as any guy I ever had. So those are the kinds of things I remember is just how good of an athlete he was and ‘course, his ability to score. And I say score instead of just shoot, because he got to where he could do so many things.
Q: How do you feel about USU retiring Jaycee’s number?
A: Well deserved — I mean, leading scorer in school history, won a ton of games while he was playing — just made a lot of sense to me. But, you know, I grew up in Utah, so I’m very familiar with all of Utah State’s, or at least most of the Utah State’s basketball history. And the guys that are already have their jerseys retired, and there’s not very many of them, so he’s in a select group. And I was just pleased for him. And anytime you get an individual honor — and I used to always tell our players this — anytime you get an individual honor, it’s a reflection of your team too, because all those good things don’t happen if you don’t have good teammates and guys willing to sacrifice to be successful.