Hours before Real Madrid tipped off its Round 6 game in Tel Aviv, this website published its weekly Round Table feature in which former players and esteemed journalists answered questions about the season. To the question about who has been the most surprising EuroLeague veteran so far this season, two Madrid players were named: Anthony Randolph and Rudy Fernandez. If the question had been asked a few hours later, perhaps Jaycee Carroll's name would have been on the tongues of the voters.
On the other hand, there isn't much that's surprising about Carroll's exploits because we have seen him do it time and time again. With his quick release and uncanny accuracy, Carroll can change a game in very little time. And he showed on Thursday that even at age 35, when Carroll heats up he can still outscore a whole team by himself.
During the second quarter of Madrid 66-87 shellacking of Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, Carroll scored 14 unanswered points in a five-minute stretch. Maccabi scored 8 for the entire quarter! When Carroll made his final triple of the quarter, Madrid was in control at 21-41. He finished the game with 4 three-pointers from 5 attempts for a season-high 16 points in 19 minutes.
Big games against Maccabi, and in particular in Tel Aviv, are nothing new for Carroll. Just two years ago, he carried Madrid to an 82-89 win with 18 points on 5-of-8 three-point shooting in 16 minutes for a Round 2 victory in the 2016-17 season. In March 2015, he scored 18 in 16 minutes, this time making 3 of 4 from downtown, in an 86-75 victory in the Spanish capital. As a EuroLeague rookie in 2011-12, he totaled 35 points on 7-of-9 shooting from downtown in two games versus Maccabi. And he averaged 12.7 points over 22 minutes on 63.6% shooting from downtown in Madrid's sweep of Maccabi in the 2013 playoffs.
After his display on Thursday in Tel Aviv, Carroll has 330 threes in his EuroLeague career and needs only 9 more to catch Trajan Langdon for 10th place on the all-time charts. What's more, no player among the top 30 in threes made has a better career accuracy than Carroll's 43.7%. And there are no signs of him slowing down.