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Men's Basketball Tips Off The 2007-08 Season With Exhibition Game Against EA Sports Wednesday Night
Oct. 29, 2007
LOGAN, Utah - Complete Release in PDF Format
GAME 1 (Exhibition)GAME DAY HEADLINES • Utah State will begin its 103rd season of basketball against EA Sports on Wed., Oct. 31. USU has an overall record of 1,346-978 (.579). • For the past 37 years, Utah State has called the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum home and has won 80 percent of its games in the building with an impressive 419-105 (.800) record, including a 140-12 (.921) mark during the past 10 seasons. • Utah State returns three starters (Jaycee Carroll, Kris Clark and Stephen DuCharme) and four lettermen from the 2006-07 team that went 23-12, finished in fourth-place in the Western Athletic Conference with a 9-7 record, played in the WAC Tournament championship game and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament where it lost at Michigan (68-58) in the first round. • Utah State returns one player from last season who was honored by the Western Athletic Conference in senior guard Jaycee Carroll (first-team all-WAC). Carroll averaged 21.3 points and 6.3 rebounds during his junior season. • Aggie players from the state of Utah include senior forward Nick Hammer (St. George/Snow Canyon HS), junior forward Gary Wilkinson (South Jordan/Bingham), sophomore center Brayden Bell (Brighton/Brighton HS), freshman guard Jaxon Myaer (Salt Lake City/Judge Memorial HS), freshman guard Tyler Newbold (Payson/Payson HS), and freshman forward Tai Wesley (Provo/Provo HS). • Utah State lost seven lettermen from last season, including two starters in Chaz Spicer and Durrall Peterson. Spicer, who was named to the WAC's all-tournament team, averaged 11.3 points last year, while Peterson averaged 9.3 points. THIS WEEK ON THE AIR ON THE INTERNET LOOKING AT UTAH STATE SCHEDULE NOTE-ABLE NEXT WEEK DID YOU KNOW? LOOKING BACK AT THE BLUE/WHITE SCRIMMAGE AGGIES WELCOME EIGHT NEWCOMERS TO THE PROGRAM UTAH STATE RETURNS THREE REDSHIRTS SCOUTING EA SPORTS EA SPORTS PLAYERS OF NOTE EA SPORTS ROSTERLOOKING BACK AT LAST YEAR'S EXHIBITION GAME AGAINST EA SPORTS Turnovers down the stretch and poor shooting doomed Utah State basketball in its first exhibition game of the 2006-07 season as the Aggies lost 67-60 to EA Sports on Nov. 1. Jaycee Carroll led the Aggies with 24 points, while also adding eight rebounds, but USU, which ranked third in the country in field goal percentage during the 2005-06 season, hit just 39.3 percent of its attempts en route to the loss. Carroll, a junior guard, hit 9-of-16 attempts, but the rest of the Aggies struggled as the other four starters combined for just 8-of-23 shooting. Chaz Spicer hit four-of-eight attempts en route to 14 points for USU, but no other Aggie had more than six points. Meanwhile, EA Sports shot 52.0 percent, a figure the opponents reached just three times last season against USU. Troy Devries, a former New Mexico player, led EA Sports with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting, which included five-of-eight from three-point range. Geoff Husted added 12 points and 12 rebounds for the visitors, while Jason Forte chipped in 12 points. USU, which out-rebounded the visitors 38-32, was paced on the board by Chris Session, who pulled down a game-high 14. Session also added six points, two assists, one block and one steal. EA Sports jumped out to a 34-25 halftime lead. The Aggies cut the margin to 36-33 three minutes into the second half as Carroll hit three lay-ups and assisted on another by Chaz Spicer as USU opened the half on an 8-2 run. However EA Sports pushed the margin back to 12 just two and one half minutes later out-scoring the Aggies 13-4. USU was able to cut the lead to just one when Session followed a miss with a lay-up to bring USU within 55-54 with 6:16 remaining in the game. However, EA Sports was able to keep the margin between three and eight points the rest of the game as USU struggled holding onto the ball as well as shooting it down the stretch. UTAH STATE AMONG THE BEST IN THE COUNTRY UTAH STATE HAS DOMINATED CONFERENCE PLAY SINCE 2000 PRESEASON NOTES • Utah State received two votes in the preseason coaches poll, tying them for 49th in the nation. • Carroll is one of 50 players named to the preseason John R. Wooden Award, the nation's most coveted college basketball award. Carroll joins Nevada's Marcelus Kemp as the only two players from the WAC on the list. Carroll is also named as one of the top 15 seniors in the nation by SportsIllustrated.com and a high-major All-American by Collegehoops.net. • Carroll is one of just two players in school history, along with Wayne Estes, to earn Associated Press All-America honors as he was named an honorable mention AP All-American in 2007. • Utah State does not have a single player from the state of California on its roster for the first time since the 1993-94 season, a span of 14 years. Since the 1994 season, USU has had a total of 45 players from the "Golden State", including a single-season high of seven during the 2003-04 campaign. • Utah State has seven freshmen on its 2007-08 roster, which is the most-ever on a USU team dating back to the 1957-58 season. • The six players from the state of Utah on the 2007-08 roster are the most on a USU team since the 1988-89 squad had seven in-state players on its roster. RETURNING PLAYER NOTES #10 Kris Clark - Started 33 of a possible 35 games at the point in his first year at Utah State, including the final 25 games... Finished the year ranked first in the Western Athletic Conference with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.21-to-1.00... That assist-to-turnover ratio also ranks third at USU for a single-season... Recorded 146 assists during the year, which ranks 12th all-time at Utah State for a single-season... Averaged 4.17 assists per game which ranked fourth in the conference... In conference only games, he ranked second with an average of 5.13 assists per game, while his 2.65 assist-to-turnover ratio was first in the league... Also averaged 3.5 points and 1.7 rebounds in 25.5 minutes per game... Shot 33.3 percent from the field, 21.2 percent from three-point range and 93.1 percent from the free throw line (27-of-29). #20 Jaycee Carroll - Named the 2007-08 Western Athletic Conference's preseason Player of the Year... Enters his senior season seventh all-time at Utah State with 1,737 career points and is just 391 points shy of breaking Greg Grant's (1983-86) all-time scoring mark of 2,127 points... Ranks first all-time at Utah State in three-point shooting (.452), second in three-pointers made (255), fourth in three-pointers attempted (564), fourth in double-figure scoring games (86), fifth in games started (97), sixth in field goals made (613) and attempted (1,213), sixth in free throw percentage (.834) and 12th in scoring average (17.5)... Among active Division I players, he ranks first in the nation in career three-point shooting, is second in total points scored, third in career scoring average, seventh in three-pointers made and seventh in free throw percentage (.834)... Earned honorable mention All-American honors from the Associated Press and first-team all-conference honors as he finished the season first in the WAC and 10th in the nation in scoring with 21.3 points per game... Also led the WAC and ranked 12th in the nation in free throw shooting at 88.8 percent... Ranked first in the conference in three-point shooting (43.2), fifth in overall shooting (52.7) and 12th in rebounding (6.3)... Scored 746 points during the year, which ranks second all-time in school history behind only Wayne Estes who scored 821 points during the 1963-64 season... Those 746 points are also tied for the eighth-most ever scored in a single-season in the 45-year history of the WAC... Played 1,255 minutes (35.9) during the year which ranks first all-time at Utah State, while his 21.3 point scoring average ranks 15th all-time... Was named the WAC's Player of the Week along with garnering National Player of the Week honors from ESPN's Dick Vitale after scoring a career-high 44 points in Utah State's 75-62 home win against New Mexico State on Feb. 5... Named to the WAC's all-tournament team as he averaged 24.7 points and 7.3 rebounds in leading the Aggies to the championship game as he shot 47.9 percent from the field, 38.9 percent from three-point range and 91.3 percent from the free throw line. #40 Stephen DuCharme - Started 30 games in his first year at Utah State, including 30 of the last 31... Set a school record in November by making 17 straight field goals during a two-game span, including a 10-for-10 performance against Drake on Nov. 18... Scored a career-high 22 points against Drake... Also scored 22 points at Santa Clara on Dec. 23... Scored in double-figures 18 times during the season, including three 20-point games... Recorded three double-doubles during the year as he had 13 points and 10 rebounds against IPFW on Dec. 21, 22 points and 11 rebounds against Santa Clara on Dec. 23 and 13 points and a season-high 16 rebounds against Fresno State on Mar. 3... Finished the year second on the team in rebounding with 5.1 boards per game and third in scoring with 10.2 points per game... Led the team in field goal percentage at 54.3 percent and was second in blocked shots with 15. UTAH STATE TRADITION •Over the past eight years, Utah State has won three regular season conference championships and four tournament championships. •Utah State has advanced to eight straight postseason appearances, which is a school record, going to the NCAA Tournament in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006 and to the National Invitation Tournament in 2002, 2004 and 2007. •Over the last eight years, Utah State has gone 17-4 (.810) in conference postseason tournaments and has advanced to the championship game seven times in the last eight years. •The Aggies have won 23-plus games in each of the last eight seasons, which is a school record. •Utah State is the first team in the history of the Western Athletic Conference to play in the conference tournament title game in each of its first two years in the league. •During the 2006-07 season, Utah State recorded the eighth-most wins in school history (23) and advanced to postseason play for the 25th time. •During the 2006-07 season, Utah State set a school-record by shooting 78.0 percent from the free throw line, leading the WAC and ranking second in the nation. •Over the past eight seasons, Utah State has gone 198-62 overall and 104-32 in conference play. Those 198 wins are the ninth-most in the country over that time period, while its 76.2 percent winning percentage is the sixth-best in the country. •The 1999-2000 team set a school record with 28 wins and went a perfect 19-0 in the Big West Conference, marking only the third time in league history a team has gone undefeated. •The 2000-01 team tied the school record for wins (28) and recorded Utah State's first NCAA Tournament win in 31 years with a 77-68 overtime victory against Ohio State. •From 2000-2001, Utah State won 26-straight Big West games, which is the fourth-longest winning streak in the history of the conference. •Over the last eight years, Utah State has recorded eight of the top nine winningest seasons in school history. •Over the past eight years, Utah State has had two All-American selections, 14 first-team all-conference selections, 23 all-conference selections (first and second team) and 26 conference player of the week honorees, not to mention Coach Morrill being named the league's Coach of the Year on two separate occasions. HEAD COACH Stew Morrill • Head coach Stew Morrill (213-75) is 13 wins shy of passing E. Lowell Romney ( 225-157) to become the winningest coach in school history. Morrill is also third all-time in games coached (288) at USU and is the longest tenured coach at Utah State (entering 10th season) since the Ladell Andersen era (1962-71). • Entering his 10th season with the Aggies, Morrill has a 213-75 (.740) overall record, a 112-40 (.737) conference record and a 17-5 (.773) record in conference postseason play. Overall, Morrill owns a 431-213 (.669) record in 21 years as a collegiate head coach. • Among active coaches at the Division I level, Morrill ranks 23rd in the nation with his 431 career wins and 28th in winning percentage at 66.9 percent. • Morrill is one of just 27 active coaches with 400 career wins at the Division I level and one of just 13 active coaches to notch 12 20-win seasons, while his current streak of eight straight 20-win seasons is tied for the ninth-longest active streak in the nation. • Morrill has been named conference coach of the year three times during his career, winning the award in 1991 while at Montana, and in 2000 and 2002 while at Utah State. • Morrill has coached 10 first-team all-league players who have won the award a total of 14 times. • Utah State is 125-12 (.912) in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum under Morrill. • Morrill has led Utah State to eight straight 20-win seasons and eight straight postseason appearances, both of which are school records. • Morrill led Utah State to its first NCAA Tournament win in 31 years when USU defeated fifth-seeded Ohio State 77-68 in overtime during the 2001 NCAA Tournament.
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