Utah State guard Jaycee Carroll has always be one for a good challenge, and in the next two months he will face his biggest challenge to date.

Monday, the senior-to-be, who led the Western Athletic Conference in scoring, declared himself eligible for the NBA Draft, thus making himself eligible to compete in camps and showcases designed for NBA prospects.

"I have been told and heard there is some interest and there might be some opportunities," Carroll said. "I'm a long shot for sure, but if by doing this it will help my chances at all and narrow the gap from being a long to having a shot, it's something I want to do."

Carroll, a 6-foot-2, 175 pound guard will not hire an agent, which will allow him to withdraw his name from the draft by June 18 and still retain his college eligibility.

The NBA Draft will be held June 28 in New York City.

"If I'm not going to be in the first round or anything like that I'll definitely come back to school," he said. " ... For me it would be an opportunity for me to travel around a little bit and see different parts of the country and to play basketball with high-caliber players. It would give me some goals to shoot for this summer and keep me on top of my game."

So far, at least 29 underclassmen have declared for the draft including player of the year Texas' Kevin Durant (freshman); Ohio State's Greg Oden (freshman); UCLA's Aaron Afflalo (junior); Florida's Corey Brewer (junior), Joakim Noah (junior) and Taurean Green (junior) and LSU's Glenn Davis (junior).

Nevada guards Marcelus Kemp and Ramon Sessions have also declared.

Carroll, who was named honorable mention All-American by The Associated Press, averaged 21.3 points a game and was named to the WAC First-Team. If he returns, he is solid favorite for conference player of the year.

He finished 10th in the nation in scoring and 12th in free throw percentage at 88.8 percent.

"Our coaching staff understands and supports Jaycee on his decision to explore the NBA," Utah State coach Stew Morrill said. "It has become fairly common for underclassmen who have had great seasons to test the waters and find out information regarding their status with the NBA. Jaycee understands unless he is guaranteed to be a first-round pick that the wise decision would be to come back to school."

This year the Aggies (23-12) won at least 23 games for the eighth straight season and advanced to the postseason for the eighth straight time.

Should he return, he is just 391 points shy of moving past Greg Grant (2,127 points) as the Aggies' all-time leading scorer. If he maintains his 21.3 average next year, he will break the record in Game 18.

Along with the scoring record, Carroll could move into No. 1 all-time in several other categories: He currently leads in three-point FG percentage (45.2 percent); He needs just 29 three-pointers made and 123 three-point FG attempts to pass Tony Brown (283, 686); He needs 20 10-point games and 239 field goals made to pass Greg Grant (105, 852) in both categories (Carroll made 256 field goals last season).

"I've been looking forward to my senior season since this season got over. We're going to have a good team back and there are a lot of things that came be accomplished and achieved this next year at Utah State. It would take a lot to get me away from here," he said.

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E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com