The BYU men's basketball team continues to grow, adding another signee to their 2020 recruiting class — and they're keeping it in the family.
On Friday, coach Mark Pope announced that Tanner Toolson signed his National Letter of Intent.
Toolson, who was named the Washington state Mr. Basketball for 2020, is the son of former BYU great Andy Toolson. His older brother Conner played for Pope at Utah Valley. He is also the cousin of recent BYU graduate Jake Toolson, who played for Pope at Utah Valley for two seasons before transferring to BYU for his final season.
“We are so excited to have Tanner join our BYU program,” Pope said in a news release. “His trajectory over the last two years has been incredible. He’s got a silky-smooth jumper and has a fire, competitiveness and physicality that will endear him to Cougar fans. Tanner comes from a great basketball family. His father Andy was a BYU legend and played for the Jazz, and his brother Conner was a junior college national champ and a star at UVU. They both had great moments in the Marriott Center — Andy wowed Cougar faithful for four years and Conner was part of a record-setting performance — and knowing Tanner as we do, he’s going to come in and be the best of the three.”
The Union High School product made his decision Thursday night live on Instagram and picked the Cougars over Boise State, Portland, Utah State and the University of Utah.
The 6-foot-5 guard had a breakout senior season in which he led Union High School to a school record 27 wins and a third-place finish in the 4A Washington state tournament. He averaged 23 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3 assists.
As a junior, Toolson averaged 13.5 points and shot 49% from the field.
Toolson is the latest addition to BYU’s 2020 recruiting class that also includes Purdue transfer Matt Haarms, junior college transfers Gideon George (New Mexico Junior College) and Spencer Johnson (Salt Lake Community College) and high school seniors Dallin Hall (Fremont High School) and Richie Saunders (Wasatch Academy). Toolson, Hall and Saunders all plan to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before enrolling at BYU.
