ARVADA — Luke Neff will miss tossing the high-arching lobs to his Arvada West teammates.
The 6-foot point guard could usually bet that once he threw the basketball somewhere near the rim, 7-footer Dallas Walton or springy 6-3 guard Will Wittman would be able to grab it and slam it home.
“It might not have been too many in the games, but in practice I threw a lot of them to those guys,” Neff said.
The Arvada West trio may be done with its alley-oop connection in high school, but all three are moving on to play the sport at the next level.
Walton (Colorado), Neff (Denver) and Wittman (Otero Junior College) were among the dozens of Colorado athletes who signed national letters of intent Wednesday to play various sports at colleges of all levels across the country.
“We talk a lot in coaching about teaching kids life skills and life lessons,” Arvada West basketball coach Jeff Parriott said. “This is the ultimate, to have kids work their whole lives to get to a point where their careers and futures are right in front of them. To see these three set a goal and accomplish it, it’s awesome.”
The Arvada West group won’t be heading far. Walton, a versatile big man who averaged 16.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots per game this past season, will be counted upon to add depth to the Buffaloes’ frontcourt, which will have to replace all-Pac-12 selection Josh Scott.
“We’re extremely excited to add Dallas to the Colorado basketball family,” CU coach Tad Boyle said in a statement. “We obviously need to add to our front line, and we will continue to do so, but Dallas is a great first step.”
Neff, who was also AAU teammates with Walton in the Billups Elite program, will join his brother Thomas at DU under new coach Rodney Billups.
“I think they are energetic and ready to get after it,” Neff said of the Pioneers’ new coaches. “I know the guys down there are really excited, so I can’t wait to get there in the summer and start working with them.”
While Walton and Neff had their basketball futures mapped out long before Wednesday’s signing day, Wittman did make his commitment to Otero in La Junta.
“I’m so happy for him,” Walton said of Wittman. “He’s going to do big things in his future.”
