Prospects guards hoping to prosper

Christopher Drexel

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | midnight

Heather Cory

Playing with the Las Vegas Prospects AAU team, Bishop Gorman’s Jonathan Loyd gives his teammate a high-five as he takes his seat during a game against the Elite Basketball Organization during a adidas Super 64 tournament game at Rancho High School on Tuesday, July 22, 2008.

One glance in the stands reveals the crowds at these basketball games are a little different.

Gone are the chanting teenagers from the high school season, who are replaced by rows and rows of middle-aged men holding stacks of rosters, clip boards and notes, all wearing logos of different colleges.

They don’t chant or make noise, but they are critiquing players more than any fan would. They’re college coaches and assistants, and they fill half gyms at the Super 64 tournament, sponsored by adidas.

Jonathan Loyd of Bishop Gorman and Mike Cutright of Cimarron-Memorial realize the importance of the tournament held July 22 to 26. Teamed together on the Las Vegas Prospects, two of Summerlin’s finest players know how they play together will affect what kind of college offers they receive.

“Playing in front of this many coaches is a dream come true,” said Cutright, a shooting guard. “This is what everybody on my team has wanted to do since we were little. We all want to go to school and play ball.

“Playing here gets you a lot of exposure. In high school, you have a few players that are good. Out here, everybody is good.”

The Prospects have played in more than 30 games together since the end of the high school season, traveling to tournaments in Kansas, North Carolina, Denver, California and Arizona. But Loyd, in his second year with the Prospects, said the Super 64 is the most important tourney they will play in.

“I always see the most college coaches here,” said Loyd, a point guard. “I think a lot of coaches will be at all our games (specifically). We’re the hometown team, so people want to see how we will defend our state and our city.”

Prospects coach Anthony Brown said the Super 64 is the peak event. Not only is it in their hometown, but it occurs during a pinnacle in college recruiting, The tournament falls during an NCAA summer evaluation period in which college coaches are able to view recruits in action but not make contact.

Leading up to the tournament, the Prospects practiced five times a week, but only saw a ball for two of those workouts. The rest of the time was focused on conditioning, preparing to play 10 games in four days.

“This is the most important time, bar none,” Brown said. “You can wash out everything you did from March up until now because this is the last impression of you. People talk about first impressions, but with these college coaches, it’s their last impression.”

Brown has prepared both Loyd and Cutright to have key roles.

Loyd, a sophomore-to-be, is entrenched as the starting point guard. He’s already attracted interest from Oregon, Oregon State, San Diego State, UNLV and Kentucky, who he noticed was represented at the Super 64.

Loyd is familiar with the recruiting process, as his oldest brother Mike plays at BYU and his other brother, Kevin, graduated from Gorman in June and is deciding on a school.

“Jonathan has a great feel for the game, great toughness, great basketball IQ,” Brown said. “We call him ‘Coach Loyd,’ because that’s what he is — a coach on the floor.”

Cutright, a senior-to-be, is in his first season with the Prospects after being invited to join the program in April. He has already received offers from Western Michigan and McNeese State, where his father Michael Cutright played before a stint with the Denver Nuggets in the early 1990s.

Standing 6 feet, 4 inches and weighing 230 pounds, Cutright is one of the largest guards in the tournament and is the Prospects’ sixth man, counted on to provide scoring.

“We call him a power guard, a mismatch nightmare,” Brown said. “Because if you put a big guy on him, now you have to decide how to guard him. If you put a smaller guy on him, we’ll take him right down to the post. It’s kind of like buffet style — whatever you want, however you want it.”

Brown added the Super 64 is particularly valuable for players hailing from Las Vegas, which he points out has one university and no junior colleges or Division II schools for kids to play at.

“We don’t get that kind of exposure for our high schools as oppose to say our neighboring state, Utah, which has six Division I’s, several juco’s and a couple D-II’s,” he said. “They have more of an opportunity to get in front of coaches more often as oppose to Vegas kids. During live evaluation periods like this, it’s the time. We have to be prepared.”