"I had a lot of stuff running through my head," Spicer said later. "I didn't know what to do."
To the delight of the biggest chunk of the loud, sellout crowd of 10,270 in the Smith Spectrum, Spicer was adequately decisive with the basketball in his hands Wednesday night. His three-pointer with 1.6 seconds remaining resulted in his momentary smile, at least, and gave USU a 60-57 victory over Utah.
The Aggies came through in the end, only after absorbing the best shots of the Utes in a contest USU coach Stew Morrill labeled "a fistfight."
Aside from the cool, clutch shooting of USU's Jaycee Carroll and Spicer in the last minute, the real take-home lesson from this game was the way the young Utes responded to the circumstances. They could have crumbled when they trailed by 11 points early in the second half or when they were tied in the last five minutes, in a place where the celebrated Utes of Andrew Bogut lost by 26 points two years ago.
The Utes were resilient; the Aggies were the winners. It was good stuff, all around, in a wonderfully frenzied environment.
Care to imagine what this place is like for a visiting team? "I don't want to," Carroll said, smiling.
Carroll's the state's best college basketball player right now - discounting pro potential, in the case of Utah's Luke Nevill - and he's performing nightly in an atmosphere that's as revved up as anywhere in the country.
It's 40 Minutes of Yell, and it could hardly be any more fun. The Aggie students dash into the prime seats when the doors open an hour before the game, they join in organized songs and cheers and they exercise reasonable taste in heckling the visitors from start to finish, all while maintaining heavy-metal-concert decibel levels.
Ask anybody who was here, and the report will be that it was louder than ever Wednesday.
"It's special, when it gets rockin' like that," Morrill said.
"You can't hear," said Ute coach Ray Giacoletti. "There's no reason to yell or scream."
Giacoletti was jostled by exuberant students as he tried to shake hands with the Aggies, but he was forgiving. The fans' flooding of the court was slightly dangerous, yet understandable, the most amazing part being that they had any energy left.
There's a reason Morrill is 115-11 in this venue, including 14-1 against in-state rivals. Giacoletti ranks the Spectrum with New Mexico's Pit and Arizona's McKale Center for loudness, and those buildings are much bigger.
The cheering is so structured, it almost seems as if it's the same students staying in school, year after year. Meanwhile, Morrill keeps turning over his roster with junior college players, even more interchangeably.
Spicer is one of them, growing into an expanded role as a senior. Stephen DuCharme is another, an undersized center - Morrill is "irritated" that the school lists him at an exaggerated 6-foot-8 - who defended the 7-1 Nevill decently.
"That guy," DuCharme said, "was big."
So were the shots of Carroll and Spicer, following Johnnie Bryant's go-ahead three-pointer for Utah. It was pretty quiet in the Spectrum after Bryant's shot, but not for long.
kkragthorpe@sltrib.com
