Basketball: Sylmar’s Honeycutt is impressive against Van Nuys

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There were plenty of talented players, as well as plenty of interesting subplots, during Monday’s War on the Floor Tournament at Taft High in the Valley. But the most interesting story, as far as I was concerned, had to do with Tyler Honeycutt and whether he was capable of living up to all the hype surrounding him recently.

Surprisingly enough, the talk, the big-time buzz stirring on the national level, is warranted.

The 6-foot-8 senior-to-be from Sylmar scored 29 points and added 19 rebounds in a 76-71 semifinal victory over Van Nuys, a team featuring two former Spartans, transfers Victor Rudd and Willie Hankins. Honeycutt, however, stole the show and will have another chance to impress in Tuesday‘s final against the host Toreadors at 7 p.m.

‘Tyler is the real deal,’’ Spartans Coach Bort Escoto said. ‘His game has taken off, really taken off, and tonight’s effort is just another sign that he’s maturing. I’m getting calls from college coaches from across the nation all of the time. They want to know how Tyler is doing. He’s got a bright future ahead of him.’’

Honeycutt has six Division I scholarship offers on the table, the highest-profile school being USC. Arizona, Gonzaga, Kansas and UCLA have been in contact with him as well, and who knows how many other potential suitors could come calling, provided he continues to impress? And it appears he will.

‘Things have been crazy for me lately,’’ Honeycutt said. ‘I went from having no schools interested in me to talking to a lot of them. It caught me off guard. I have to pinch myself once in a while. It’s like it happened out of nowhere. There’s no time to rest, though. I have a lot of things to work on. I’m not where I want to be yet.’’

-- Sean Ceglinsky