MUKILTEO — Even during the heart of basketball season, Carson Tuttle frequently pulls off two-a-days.
In addition to his team’s slate of practices and games, the Kamiak junior standout can be found honing his craft almost nightly in the Mukilteo Boys & Girls Club gym.
It’s where Tuttle, from an early age, has spent endless hours developing his lightning-quick handles, perfecting his smooth shooting stroke and laying the foundation for his basketball success.
“I’ve spent a lot of late nights and early mornings there,” Tuttle said. “That’s where I go to pull my game back to center and work on the things that I need improvement on. That’s like my second home, my home away from home.”
The product of those countless training sessions was on full display this season.
Tuttle, a 5-foot-11 point guard, showcased his dynamic all-around game while averaging 22.5 points, 5.9 assists and 4.0 rebounds per contest and leading the Knights to the Class 4A state regionals.
As only a junior this season, Tuttle surpassed 1,000 career points and broke the school’s all-time career scoring record. He scored at least 30 points four times, including a 35-point performance against Monroe that tied a school record.
He also broke his own single-season assists record, topping the previous program-best mark he set last year.
For his spectacular play, Tuttle is The Herald’s 2017 Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
“It comes from hard work,” Kamiak coach Cory West said of Tuttle’s success. “I know it’s very cliché, but it’s true. He’ll have a bad shooting game and … (he’ll go) to the Boys & Girls Club to shoot after a game on a school night. That’s the type of kid he is. He strives for perfection.”
Consequently, it’s nearly impossible to find a hole in Tuttle’s smooth, polished game.
“As far as a true point guard in our league, he’s probably as good as I’ve coached against in my time,” said Glacier Peak coach Brian Hunter, who has spent nearly two decades in Wesco.
“He does an unbelievable job of putting constant pressure on you, because of the way he can go to the basket and find his teammates when you help out. And when you play off him, he’s as good of a shooter as we have in the league, with really incredible range.”
Tuttle lit up the scoreboard from beyond the arc this season, hitting 37 percent of his 3-point attempts while demonstrating practically limitless range. He also showed a knack for sinking clutch shots, twice forcing overtime with a pull-up, buzzer-beating 3-pointer from just inside half court.
“To make that shot was pretty amazing,” West said of the latter buzzer-beater, which came in the district semifinals. “I’m still kind of like, ‘whoa.’ It all comes back to confidence. You have to be confident to pull both of those shots.”
Yet Tuttle’s greatest strength might be his superb court vision and ability to deftly deliver pinpoint passes, occasionally even with the added flair of a behind-the-back or no-look dish. In fact, early in Tuttle’s high-school career, West said his star guard was almost too unselfish with the ball.
“He’s always looking to get teammates open or get the extra pass,” West said. “But we’ve kind of drilled in his head that in certain times of the game, we need you to have the ball in your hands and take some of those shots.”
Tuttle’s game is tied together by exceptional ball handling, which allows him to both create his own shot and drive past defenders to the hoop.
“It’s almost like a yo-yo, honestly,” West said. “He has the ball on a string.”
And like the rest of his game, Tuttle’s dribbling prowess stems from tireless work.
“I can remember going to the gym and working on ball handling for an hour before I even took a shot,” Tuttle said, later adding, “I try to keep my game well-rounded. I don’t want to just be known as a scorer. I don’t want to just be known as getting assists.
“I want to be known as a playmaker — at any given point, I can make the right play.”
Tuttle credits much of his success to his father, who played collegiately in Illinois and has helped instill his son’s relentless work ethic.
“He’s been my biggest support all the way through,” Tuttle said. “He’s always helped me out. He was a point guard himself, and so I’ve learned a lot of my game from him.”
West, meanwhile, has long known of Tuttle’s special talent. The Kamiak coach remembers being impressed with Tuttle’s skill during a youth camp years ago, after the ambitious youngster challenged him to a game of one-on-one as a fourth grader. By Tuttle’s sixth-grade year, West was already showing his friends highlight videos of the young phenom.
West is beyond thrilled to have one more season with Tuttle, and wants to cherish every moment.
“(I want to) maximize the time I’m able to coach him,” West said, “and honestly, at the same time, watch him play. It’s a great thing. It’s a blessing.”
Tuttle has lifted the program to rare heights, leading the Knights to the state regionals each of the last two seasons. Kamiak’s only other state appearance came in 2005, and the program has never won a state game in the school’s 24-year history.
Tuttle hopes to change that his senior season.
“My biggest goal is to get to the Tacoma Dome,” Tuttle said. “Coming into Kamiak, I sat down and talked to my coach about wanting to change the culture of the whole basketball program.
“We’ve taken steps toward that, getting to the regional game two years in a row. But definitely the goal (now) is to make it to the Tacoma Dome and go as far as we can in the state tournament.”
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