The Utah Pump N Run Red team of 17-year-olds, including some of the top rising seniors in the state, was eliminated at the adidas Best of Summer Classic on Thursday night 46-44 by the BTI team fro Los Angeles.

The Utahns were eliminated in the Elite 8 of the 92-team field.

Provo's Kyle Collinsworth had 12 points, while Oly's Nicholas Paulos and Connor Brady combined for 14 and Bingham's Ben Clifford has 10 rebounds.

To reach the Elite 8, UPNR defeated Sam Rines of Pennsylvania 54-32 in the Sweet 16. Collinsworth, Paulos and Neil Monson of Waterford were the leading scorers in that game.

Here are the statistical leaders from the team's two-week run at tournaments in Las Vegas and Southern California:

Scoring Average
Kyle Collinsworth 19
Nicholas Paulos 11
Neal Monson 10

Rebounding Average
Neil Monson 8
Ben Clifford 7
Kyle Collinsworth 5

Assists Average

Kyle Collinsworth 4
Shad Sommerville 3
Nicholas Paulos 3

Blocks Average
Neil Monson 2
Ben Clifford 2
Nicholas Paulos 1

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Meanwhile the Utah Pump N Run team of 16-year-olds (guys who will be juniors this fall) also reached the final eight in their division at the Best of Summer Classic.

The team downed teams from Dallas and Kansas City in bracket play before losing 61-56 to the Derek Smith All-Stars of Louisville, Kentucky.

The team was down by 14 in the first half, and closed the margin to three, but could get no closer.

Highland's Nathan Fakahafua had 21 points, while Peter Howey of Woods Cross added nine.

Tournament Leaders:
Scoring: Nathan Fakahafua, Michael Brown, Wasatch, Peter Howey, WX
Three point shooters: Brown, Fakahafua and Tanner LeBaron, Timpanogos
Rebounding: Austin Bankowski, Woods Cross, Blake Wilkinson, Viewmont
Assists: Sam Orchard, Highland; Zach Stanley, Lehi
Fewest Turnovers: Tanner LeBaron
Steals: Morgan Hesleph, Juan Diego; Zach Stanley
Foul Shooting: Blake Wilkinson

Team coached by Eric Johnson and Dave Thompson.

The Utah Pump N Run Red team of 17-year-olds continues to play well at the Best of Summer tournament in Los Angeles.

Wednesday, the team came from 24 points down to defeat the Inland Empire (Calif.) 54-53 and advanced to the Sweet 16 in bracket play.

UPNR trailed 30-15 at halftime and 44-20 with 11 minutes left, but rallied for the win.

Waterford's Neal Monson made two free throws with five seconds left to seal the win.

Provo's Kyle Collinsworth had 24 points and four blocks and Oly's Nicholas Paulos and Monson had seven points each. Bingham's Ben Clifford and Springville's Raul Delgado added six points each.

UPNR plays its sweet sixteen game on Thursday morning.

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The Utah Pump N Run team of 16-year-olds is also doing well in SoCal. The team went 2-1 in pool play. It defeated the Minnesota Pump N Run 48-37 and Emerald City 61-42 but lost to Chandler of California 74-59.

The Utah Pump N Run Red team of 17-year-olds went 2-1 in pool play at the adidas Best of Summer Classic in Los Angeles Monday and Tuesday and finished first in their super pool.

Provo High's Kyle Collinsworth scored 29 points and had seven rebounds and seven assists in the first game, but UPNR lost 71-70 to Mater Dei of Los Angeles.

UPNR then downed 2D1 Academy of SoCal 69-61 and followed that with a 63-47 thrashing of the Derrick Rose All-Stars.

Collinsworth had 26 points and seven rebounds against 2D1 Academy while Waterford's Neal Monson and Bingham's Ben Clifford added 10 points and 10 rebounds apiece.

Nicholas Paulos of Olympus led the team with 18 points, making four three-pointers, in the win over the Derrick Rose-sponsored club. Monson added 11 and 11 and Collinsworth had 11 points and seven assists.

UPNR is now in the championship bracket of the tourney.

Utah Valley University in Orem has signed Nick Jenson, a 6-foot-5 forward from Bakersfield, Calif.

Jenson told the Californian newspaper that he will play a year for the Wolverines and then go on an LDS Church mission.

Jenson averaged 17.8 points and 11.3 rebounds last season for Centennial High in Bakersfield.

UVU just completed the transition to full Division I status. The Wolverines were 17-11 last season.

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Park City volleyball star Nicole Bishop has signed to play for Northeastern University in Boston, Mass.

Bishop, a 6-foot-5 middle hitter, was a three-year starter for the Miners and set the school record in blocks.

I had a chance when I was in Las Vegas last week to talk to Utah Jazz assistant coach Tyrone Corbin about his son, West High junior-to-be Tyrell Corbin.

Tyrell, a 5-foot-11 guard, will be one of the most-recruited players in the state next summer (assuming his father stays with the Jazz). Tyrell helped West win the 4A state championship last spring in a stunning upset of Kyle Collinsworth-led Provo.

"Ty is starting to get recruited by a lot of different schools," Tyrone said. "He doesn't really know where he wants to go yet. He is getting a lot of letters from a lot of schools."

Tyrell played for the A-Train Snowbears in the Reebok tournament in Las Vegas.

Corbin said Tyrell had "a great visit" with Utah's coaching staff earlier this summer and that the Utes are showing him some love.

"He was supposed to go down and look at BYU, too, but we didn't get the chance once he got out of school and before we went back to South Carolina for awhile. But he will be a junior in school, so he will have that chance, I am sure."

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Who are the other top prospects from Utah in the class of 2011?
Brighton High 6-1 guard Corbin Miller and Box Elder 6-4 guard Brant Mecham are at the top of most lists.

The Utah Pump N Run Red 16s team made the Final 16 in the adidas Super 64 tournament in Las Vegas.

The Utahns who will be juniors this fall defeated the Indiana Elite Garlets and Urban DFW (Texas) before losing to New Heights (NYC) 56-44.

Highland High's Nathan Fakahafua led the team in scoring with a 13-point average in the tournament, followed by Wasatch's Michael Brown and Woods Cross' Austin Bankowski.

Leading three-point shooters were Fakahafua, Brown and Tanner LeBaron of Timpanogos.

Highland's Sam Orchard was the leading passer (assists), while Fakahafua was the leading rebounder and Juan Diego's Morgan Hesleph had the most steals.

Other contributing players on roster: Zach Stanley (Lehi), Blake Wilkinson (Viewmont), Peter Howey (Woods Cross), Nate Ensign (American Fork) and Christopher Melville (Timpanogos).

Like many other traveling teams, the UPNR 16s will move on to the Best of Summer tournament this week in Southern California. Monday, the team will face the Minnesota Pump N Run.

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Alta High football coach Les Hamilton reports that Hawks' receiver Tyron Morris has also received an offer from Snow College. The Hawks camped at Snow College in June.

The Utah Pump N Run Red team (17-year-olds) made a nice run at the adidas Super 64 tournament in Las Vegas, but was ousted in the round of 32 on Saturday by the Atlanta Celtics, 80-65.

The Utahns trailed by 13 points at halftime, but cut the lead to two in the second half before the Celtics pulled away at the free-throw line.

The Celtics have 10 players expected to earn Division I scholarships; NBA stars Dwight Howard, JR Smith and Josh Smith played in the program.

Provo's Kyle Collinsworth, who lists BYU as one of his five finalists, led the team in scoring with a 22-point average, followed by Nicholas Paulos (Olympus), Neal Monson (Waterford) and Ben Clifford (Bingham). Shad Sommerville of Bingham led the team in assists and Paulos and Wil Watkins (Olympus) led the team in three-point field goals.

Copper Hills' Tyler Fa'alogo, Oly's Connor Brady and Springville's Raul Delgado were also on the roster. SLCC assistant Todd Phillips coached the team, which will begin play in the Best of Summer Classic in Southern California on Monday.

Friday night, the UPNR Red team defeated the Upstate Basketball Club of New Yo9rk 74-57 to open bracket play.

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Several other Utah teams competed in tournaments in Las Vegas that ended Saturday or will end Sunday.

Here are some scores involving Utah teams from the Reebok Summer Championships:

Garland Jaguars (Texas) 61, Salt Lake Metro Black (Utah) 52

Salt Lake Metro Prospects (Utah) 93, Colorado Chaos 17's Red 54

Salt Lake Metro Prospects (Utah) 81, Team CBIZ 16's (Ohio) 61

Just a quick update on how the Utah Pump N Run teams are doing in Las Vegas.

Thursday, the Utah Pump N Run Red 17s lost a pair of games in the adidas Super 64 tournament. They fell 79-70 to the Florida Rams and 75-70 to the Gateway (St. Louis) Basketball Club.

The UPR Red team, which features Utah State-bound Ben Clifford of Bingham and Provo's highly recruited Kyle Collinsworth, begins bracket play today at 5 p.m. in the Championship Bracket against the Update Basketball Club.

The UPR White 17s team went 1-1 Thursday, defeating the Houston Gold 63-39 before falling 76-56 to the Bay Area Hoosiers.

The White 17s are in the Gold Bracket now and will play against a team from Tracy, Calif., today.

The UPR Red 16s lost 68-57 to the Indiana Elite on Thursday.

As previously mentioned, we watched the state's most-recruited basketball player, Provo High's Kyle Collinsworth, play in Las Vegas on Wednesday night in the adidas Super 64 tournament at Rancho High.

Collinsworth scored 23 points and was clearly the best player on the floor. He struggled at the free-throw line and with turnovers early, but simply took over in the second half.

Here's what Greg Hicks of Scout.com wrote about the 6-foot-5 star:

Collinsworth isn't a big-time athlete, but he's a solid basketball player. Good skill level, very good feel for the game and a good competitor. Shot is better off the bounce than catch.

Scout.com gives Collinsworth, generally considered to be one of the top 100 prospects in the country, four stars.

After the game Collinsworth told me that reports saying he will make his college choice in the next few weeks are "probably" inaccurate.

"I will probably just take my [official] visits," he said.

Recruits cannot take their official visits until they start they senior years of high school, so that means Collinsworth won't decide until sometime after Sept. 1. However, he said he still expects to sign when the early signing period begins in November.

He said he has narrowed his choices to Kansas, Arizona State, BYU, Virginia and Stanford.

All but Kansas have offered.

"They are close, though," Collinsworth said.

He noted that Georgetown, UCLA and UConn have been expressing interest lately and coaches from those schools have called him. If any of those three offer, he may rework his top-five list.

Representatives from all three schools were on hand Wednesday night, as were coaches from BYU and Stanford.

Does Collinsworth make a mental note of which coaches are watching?

"Yeah, pretty much. But most of them call me before the tournament starts," he said.

The Utah Pump N Run Red team, which features several of the best high school basketball players in the state, opened play in the adidas Super 64 tournament in Las Vegas on Wednesday with a 73-68 win over the Louisville-based Derek Smith All-Stars.

Showing why he is considered one of the top 100 seniors in the country, Provo High's Kyle Collinsworth took over in the final five minutes to lead the team to the win.

Collinsworth led all scorers with 23 points, despite a slow start due to foul trouble. Waterford's Neal Monson added 10 points and Bingham's Shad Sommerville chipped in 12. Wil Watkins, one of three Olympus players on the team, had eight points, including two huge three-pointers in the second half. His Oly teammate, Nicholas Paulos, added seven points and Bingham's Ben Clifford had eight.

I watched the game and was able to talk to Collinsworth afterwards. More on the state's most-recruited player in a later post.

Suffice to say, about 50 college coaches were in the stands at Rancho High in north Las Vegas to watch him (and others) play.

I saw Southern Utah's Roger Reid and Ron Carling and BYU's John Wardenburg and Tim Lacomb (filling in for head coach Dave Rose, who is expected to hit the recruiting trail on Thursday for the first time since being diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer a month ago).

Lacomb spent some time chatting with Pepperdine coach Marty Wilson. The two worked together at Utah under coach Ray Giacoletti.

Also there tonight was UVU's Dick Hunsaker and Utah's Jim Boylen, who was sitting next to UNLV's Lon Kruger. Collinsworth said he noticed coaches from three schools that have recently expressed some interest in him, but have yet to offer scholarships: Georgetown, UCLA and UConn.

"Seeing those coaches here, it's not a big deal any more," he said. "I'm used to it."

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While the Utah PNR Red 17-and-under team was winning at Rancho High, the Utah PNR 16-and-under team was playing across town. Austin Bankowski, who will be a junior at Woods Cross, made a putback basket with one second left to give the team a 52-50 win over a Minnesota team in double overtime.

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Noticed that Salt Lake City's Dave Hammer, who directs the Salt Lake Metro traveling teams (boys and girls) has been posting some scores on twitter. Hammer's Metro 2012 team defeated Fremont 60-56 today as Zach Wertz led the team with 11 points.

Earlier Wednesday, Tannon Pedersen scored 17 points to help Salt Lake Metro Gold down Seattle Rotary, 67-63.

The Mountain West Conference football meetings just ended here in Las Vegas, so I am going to try to catch a few high school basketball all-star games around town this afternoon and this evening.

No fewer than five major tournaments are going on this week in Vegas, and everywhere you turn down here you see a teenage basketball player.

The team with the best Utah players this year seems to be the Utah Pump N Run Red team. They play at 6:20 p.m. PT today over at Rancho High, and I am going to go watch Provo's Kyle Collinsworth, Bingham's Ben Clifford, Waterford's Neal Monson and others play against the Derek Smith All-Stars.

I will have a report later tonight.

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The Utah Pump N Run 16-and-under team is also playing in the adidas Super 64 tournament for its age group. Unfortunately, the 16-year-olds are playing at the same time as the 17-year-olds today, so I won't be able to see their game.

The team has been to the semifinals in four straight national tournaments, and is trying to break through with a title-game appearance this week. They play the Minnesota Pump N Run tonight, and are also in a pool with the Indiana Elite and HP Elite from New Orleans.

Here is their roster: Austin Bankowski, Woods Cross ; Michael Brown, Wasatch; Nate Ensign, American Fork, Nathan Fakahafua, Highland; Morgan Hesleph, Juan Diego; Peter Howey, Woods Cross, Tanner LeBaron, Timpanogos; Christopher Melville, Timpanogos, Sam Orchard, Highland; Zach Stanley, Lehi and Blake Wilkinson, Viewmont. The team is coached by Eric Johnson and Dave Thompson.

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The Utah Pump N Run White team (17-and-under) is also in the Super 64 tourney. They defeated the Carolina Cobra All-Stars 76-57 on Wednesday morning.

Markus Duran, a 6-foot guard who just graduated from Murray High, has signed to play for Cabrillo Junior College in Southern California, according to Spartans coach Jason Workman.

Duran averaged 18.5 points and 4.8 assists per game for Murray last season, according to maxpreps.com.

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College basketball coaches are taking a break from recruiting this weekend, but things really heat up again the middle of next week with several large tournaments in Las Vegas that will draw the top traveling teams from around the country.

The Utah Pump N Run Red team that features several of Utah's top players -- including Provo High's Kyle Collinsworth -- will play in the adidas Super 64 tournament in Las Vegas.

Thirty-two teams have been seeded into Super Pools and are guaranteed a spot in the field of 64 for the championship. Utah Pump N Run Red has been seeded into a super pool.

The other 48 teams are in regular pools and the winners of those pools will advance to the final 64. The Utah Pump N Run White team is in one of those pools. At the end of the tournament, the UPNR teams will move on to the Best of the Summer tournament at Loyola Marymount University if Southern California.

We wrote about the recruitment of several Alta football players a few days ago.

Turns out that linebacker Zach Liston does have a written offer from Snow College.

The Badgers have also offered Alta quarterback Jordy Brown.

The two-time defending 5A champion Hawks will open the 2009 season on Aug. 21 at home against Cottonwood.
On Aug. 28, the Hawks travel to Bingham to face the Miners.

Here's a little more information on the Utah Pump-N-Run team that competed at the Adidas It Takes 5ive tournament in Cincinnati.

The team also included Lehi's Will Walker, Spanish Fork's Matt Sumsion and Josh Van Weezep of Davis.

Van Weezep made a pair of three-pointers and chipped in 10 points in the team's first game, a win over the St. Louis Salukis.

UPnR will next play at a tournament in Las Vegas July 22-26 and then go directly to a tournament in Southern California at the end of the month.

People often ask me who is the most-recruited football player in the state this year.

This year, the member of the class of 2010 getting the most attention is Brighton High lineman Ricky Hemuli, especially now that Pleasant Grove quarterback Dallas Lloyd has committed to Stanford and Timpview safety Chris Badger has committed to Notre Dame (after originally committing to Stanford).

Another Utah player with a growing list of offers is Alta High linebacker Toloa'i Ho-Ching.

Alta High coach Les Hamilton says that Ho-Ching, a 6-foot, 225-pound rising senior, has written offers from BYU, Utah State, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Stanford.

Hamilton said that Washington State and UCLA have offered orally, but not in writing.

BYU offered Ho-Ching shortly after its Junior Day on June 6.

The coach said Ho-Ching wants to take his five allowed official recruiting visits before committing. He will be eligible to begin taking those the first day of his senior year, approximately Sept. 1.

Ho-Ching rates three stars from Scout.com and is the 26th best outside linebacker in the country, according to that recruiting Web site.

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Led by Lloyd and BYU commits Bryan Sampson and Joey Owens, Pleasant Grove will probably have the most D-I recruits in the state this coming season.

But two-time defending state champion Alta will also have its share of college-bound talent.

Hamilton reported that linebacker Parker Hausknecht has committed to Utah State, while lineman Jordan Black has committed to BYU.

Also, interest in growing in defensive back/quarterback Jordan Brown and wide receiver Zach Liston.

Brown received an offer from Snow College recently when the Hawks were in Ephraim for a team camp.

Liston has not received an offer yet, but has drawn interest from Washington State, Utah, Utah State, Southern Utah, Stanford and Navy.

Park City High running back Dylan Chynoweth received his second offer from a Division I football program recently. According to a family member, Chynoweth got an offer from Air Force earlier this week.

He also has an offer from Navy. Navy has also offered Chynoweth's teammate, Park City quarterback/defensive back Erik Walker.

Chynoweth is 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds.

As a junior he rushed for 1,326 yards on 189 carries and scored 13 touchdowns.

He also plays safety for the Miners, and made 38 tackles and one interception last season. He was a Salt Lake Tribune first-team all-stater and the Region 10 offensive MVP.

Just got a nice report from a reliable source on the Utah Pump-N-Run team's performance at the Cincinnati "It Takes 5ive" all-star tournament that I thought I would pass along.

First, a couple of players were not able to make the trip -- Bingham's Ben Clifford and Shad Sommerville. Second, Copper Hills' Tyler Fa'alogo was ill and not able to play. As a result, coach Todd Phillips had to use some of the players from UP&R's White team, and the results weren't that great.

The team won its first game 76-58 over the St. Louis Salukis behind a 25-point effort by Kyle Collinsworth. Neal Monson added 12 points and 10 rebounds and Nicholas Paulos chipped in 13 points, making three three-pointers.

They lost the second game of pool play 72-55 to the Atlanta Express and played poorly.

In the first bracket play game, UP&R led by four points with 23 seconds left against the Queen City Prophets of Cincy, but let it get away with a turnover on an out-of-bounds play and lose, 64-63.

Paulos had six three-pointers en route to 22 points, and Collinsworth added 16 points. Wil Watkins of Olympus, who usually plays for the White team, added 15.

UP&R consistently had 50 or so college coaches watching its games.

Oly's Connor Brady and Springville's Raul Delgado also played for the Red team.

A collection of some of the top 17-and-under basketball players in Utah didn't fare well at the "It Takes 5ive Classic" in Cincinnati this week.

Utah Pump-N-Run went 1-2 at the tournament. They beat the St. Louis Salukis 76-58 in the opening round of pool play, but lost Monday night 61-39 to the Atlanta Express and were relegated to the Gold Bracket on Tuesday.

However, Utah Pump-N-Run lost to the Queen City Prophets on Tuesday morning and was eliminated from the tourney.

The team consisted of Copper Hills' Tyler Fa'alogo, Bingham's Shad Sommerville, Waterford's Neal Monson, Bingham's Ben Clifford, Springville's Raul Delgado, Olympus' Nicholas Paulos, Provo's Kyle Collinsworth and Olympus' Connor Brady.

We've written a lot the past few months about Utah's top high school football players from the class of 2010 -- guys such as Brighton's Ricky Heimuli, Pleasant Grove's Dallas Lloyd and Timpview's Bronson Kaufusi.

Another player who is having a fantastic summer at camps and talent combines is Park City defensive back Erik Walker.

Walker, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound cornerback and quarterback, recently received his first Division I offer -- from Navy.

Walker and his teammate, running back Dylan Chynoweth, both received offers from Navy after leading Park City to the championship of Navy's recent 7-on-7 passing tournament.

According the the Web site gomids.com, Navy assistant coach Joey DuPaix called both players into his office and offered both scholarships.

DuPaix, of course, is the son of Skyline head coach Roger DuPaix and a former standout quarterback at Skyline.

Walker is one of the fastest players in the state, while Chynoweth, 5-8, 174, reportedly runs a 4.5-second 40.

Walker, who is being recruited mostly as a defensive back, has also drawn interest from Oregon State, Army, Air Force and Utah. Walker was named Combine MVP and the Fastest Man at the National Underclassman Combine in Idaho last month after posting a 35.5-inch vertical jump and a 9 foot, 5-inch broad jump.

He reportedly ran a 4.36 40 at the All-Poly Camp in Bountiful and was clocked in the 4.5 range in Idaho.