How did Sam Merrill fare at Utah State?
Just as was the case to start high school, Merrill didn’t enter the picture immediately for Utah State. However, that was due to entirely different reasons, beyond reasons of being redshirted for example.
In fact, Merrill took a two-year mission trip down to Nicaragua, a decision he made well before committing to Utah State’s basketball program as he told Jason Swensen of the Church News in October of 2019:
"“In my last couple of years in high school, I started to really work toward a mission,” he said. “I decided for myself that that was what I wanted to do.”"
While Merrill had to regain his fitness as well as sharpen up his skills after being away from the sport for two years, he came back to a program that had changed over its coach at the helm. Despite all of those circumstances, Merrill saw the court regularly in his freshman season and laid down the foundation to the star-studded career he would enjoy with the Aggies.
It was in his sophomore season where took a substantial leap as he went on to average 16.3 points while posting .504/.464/.849 shooting splits. He went on to earn All-Mountain West third team honors by the end of that season.
Merrill continued to cement himself as one of the best and most productive players in college basketball over his junior campaign where he averaged 20.9-4.2-3.9, all on a .461/.376/.909 slash line. A standout showing from Merrill helped lead the Aggies to win the Mountain West Tournament and secure a bid to the 2019 NCAA Tournament, their first appearance in eight years.
While the Aggies wound up falling in the second round to the University of Washington, Merrill still capped off his junior season as the Mountain West Player of the Year, the Mountain West Tournament MVP and earn an All-Mountain West first team selection.
Merrill was on his way to leading the Aggies to a second straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the college basketball season last Spring.
While that was quite the downer to cap off his time at Utah State, Merrill managed to average 19.7 points on a .461/.410/.893 slash line, 4.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists. For all of those marks and the Aggies winning last season’s Mountain West Tournament for the second straight year, Merrill was named the tournament’s MVP once again and earned his second straight All-Mountain West first team selection.
Given that Utah State hasn’t had a strong history of players getting picked in previous NBA Drafts, Merrill was confident in trying to change that as he remarked to Jeff Hunter of the Deseret News right before last week’s NBA Draft:
"“It’s definitely something that’s on my mind, and something that I’ve thought about during my time at Utah State,” Merrill said. “It’s important that you get guys in the league. And for some reason, Utah State’s been a great program, but it just hasn’t been able to do that where a lot of schools that aren’t as good as Utah State have been able to put guys into the pros. “So if I do get drafted, it would obviously be the first time in a long time, and that’s certainly important from a recruiting standpoint. It would be awesome for the school, and for me to be able to represent Utah State in that way would be incredible.”"
In the end, Merrill’s beliefs paid off.