UVSC's Toolson a long-range bomber

OREM — Trying to guess the leading college basketball scorer in the state this season could take a while.

Picking one of BYU's trio of Lee Cummard, Trent Plaisted or Jonathan Tavernari? Not even close.

Johnnie Bryant and Luke Nevill lead the University of Utah, but getting colder.

Warming up with Geoff Payne from Southern Utah? Even Utah State's all-time leading scorer, Jaycee Carroll, falls a couple of points behind the top spot.

So, did you guess Utah Valley State junior sensation Ryan Toolson? In all honesty, he probably wouldn't be on most fans' lists.

If his last name sounds somewhat familiar, though, it should. His cousin, Andy Toolson, starred at BYU from 1987-90 and later spent two seasons playing with the Utah Jazz. And his uncle is another former BYU star you might've heard of before, a guy by the name of Danny Ainge.

But those who haven't seen the UVSC shooting guard in action are missing a show. Scoring 23.1 points per game thus far this season, he is jump shooting his way to the vast majority of his baskets.

"Ryan is having a sensational season," said UVSC coach Dick Hunsaker. "We have games to be played, but he's the most improved player on the team. His overall play and consistency have been, frankly, something to marvel at."

Not a slasher-type, Toolson feels more comfortable setting up shop from behind the 3-point line — 200 of his 358 shot attempts on the year have been taken from behind the arc.

And he's shooting as well as you'd expect a pure shooter to do — 48.3 percent overall — and not dropping far behind from behind the 3-point line with a 44 percent mark. At the free-throw line, Toolson is shooting 95.3 percent, which is just a tad behind his 97 percent effort (96-of-99) that led the nation last season.

Those numbers aren't too far off from his sophomore season, in which Toolson was the sixth man on a team with four senior starters. With all of the turnover from last year's team, Hunsaker considers Toolson's play a year ago in a different light than this season.

"Last year was a completely different set of circumstances of coming back from his mission and meshing with the team in hand," Hunsaker said. "There were a number of established guys we had on the team a year ago."

With a season full of solid play, and very few bad outings, Hunsaker knows that he has a unique player in Toolson.