Stew's top 20: No. 10 - Jared Quayle

After graduating Jaycee Carroll as USU's all-time leading scorer and Kris Clark off a record-setting season of his own in 2008, the burning question surrounding Utah State at the time was, "How can the Aggies possibly replace that kind of production in the back court?"

Pooh Williams was a big factor in replacing a little scoring and giving a major defensive upgrade, but the biggest piece in filling those holes was Jared Quayle. After putting up absolutely absurd stats in junior college, Quayle didn't take long in becoming a serious impact player for Utah State. With his crazy rebounding skills, the ability to score both inside and out, solid defensive prowess and an overall "it" factor that few other players have possessed in recent years, Quayle could absolutely do it all.

The start of the 2008-09 season was a bit slow for him, but things finally came together for JQ by about the middle of December, and from that point on, the Aggies were nearly unbeatable! The team roared on to a WAC Tournament championship and second-team all-WAC honors for Quayle.

In that season's NCAA Tournament against Marquette, a pretty fair argument can be made that if Quayle doesn't get called for that questionable fifth foul with just under two minutes left and the game tied, USU would have kept dancing past that first round. Quayle still finished that game with 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

The next year, Quayle got some more friends to pass the ball to in Brian Green, Preston Medlin and Nate Bendall. As a result, his assists per game went up from 3.7 to 4.2. And while his overall field goal percentage went down a touch, he improved be a 42.1 percent shooting from 3-point range and hit on better than 90 percent of free throws in leading USU to an eventual at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament in 2010. He also was named to the all-WAC first team that season

And as if it wasn't enough to have those credentials and to have been incredibly exciting to watch, rumors abounded that during his recruiting process, he basically led BYU's coaches on to thinking they had a chance with him, only to eventually tell them he was always 100 percent Aggie, wasting their time, energy and money in the process.

Hell yeah Jared... Hell freaking yeah!!!