The Cuffs are a basketball family.

Ryan Cuff has coached three Utah high school boys basketball teams to four state championships (Lone Peak, Dixie, and American Fork twice).

Tanner Cuff scored 16 points per game for one of those teams, the 2019 Caveman title-winners, and is now in his first season at Evansville University after a stop at Salt Lake Community College.

Now Tiger’s got next. The 2024 senior committed Tuesday and held a signing ceremony Wednesday to announce he’s following in the footsteps of Ryan, his father, to play men’s basketball at Weber State.

“The coaching staff at Weber State, I really appreciate them for believing in me,” Tiger Cuff said. “They’re really committed to me … just really good guys and people I want to play for.”

The 6-foot-4 point guard is entering his senior season at American Fork. Last season, Tiger averaged 10.3 points, 3.4 assists and 2.9 rebounds and also held offers from UC San Diego, Lafayette, Denver, CSUN and Northern Arizona.

Ryan Cuff averaged 13.9 points, 5.3 assists and 4.4 rebounds in two seasons at Weber State (1995-97) before getting into coaching, with 10 seasons at Dixie High that followed a stint at Lone Peak, before taking the job at American Fork ahead of the 2018-19 season.

It’s a proverbial basketball-in-the-crib story. In his younger days, Tiger Cuff was constantly trying to get into neighborhood games with Tanner and his older, bigger friends — eventually becoming a popular pick among Tanner’s friends for his ball-distributing skills, Ryan says — and tagging along to watch whatever team his dad was coaching.

“Looking up to him and playing against (Tanner) — he’s always beating me up whenever we’re on the court — and over the years, just trying to play up with older guys, watching all the guys my dad has coached. I always wanted to play for my dad … and ever since I was young, I always wanted to play the highest level of basketball possible.”

Tiger’s always been one to work.

“He has always put a lot of practice into fundamentals and into skills. He really is a very unselfish player. This last year, he shot 48% from the 3-point line, so he’s an excellent shooter, but he doesn’t force it,” Ryan Cuff said. “He understands the game, he has from a very young age … he’s learned that, and that’s such a big part of the game.”

Tiger Cuff says his strengths include getting guys involved, his playmaking skills and making his teammates better, while shooting and defensive impact have taken big strides.

That matches a recent Instagram Reel from @strictlybball (it has 2.08 million views and 68,150 likes as of Wednesday night) that made Tiger its subject and asks, “How did this unranked kid from Utah single-handedly take a team filled with future NBA talent to the final shot?”

The video highlights American Fork’s game against Team Overtime Elite in October’s Border League event in Las Vegas, saying Tiger Cuff’s competitive nature, “advanced inside scoring,” “ability to create for his teammates” and 10 late points (26 total) pushed AF to a three-point loss against the Overtime Elite team with several high-major-type prospects.

Tiger’s college recruiting picked up this summer when his American Fork team played at the Arizona Section 7 tournament. He started to look for programs with a strong culture and coaches who created relationships with their players.

That landed him at Weber State.

“The program, how good they’ve been and the culture they’ve built — and I feel like I’ve built a relationship with these coaches and I really want to play for them,” Tiger said in choosing Weber State.

Ryan’s influence was a guiding one, not a nudging one, Tiger says.

“We definitely talked about it, but both my mom and dad, and my brother and sister, they basically put it all on me,” he said. “My dad basically said it was all my decision, so this is what I’ve decided. They would’ve supported me wherever I decided to go … but it means a lot to me, really cool to play where my dad played.

“He’s been able to play in the Weber State alumni games and just seeing all the people he knew and the culture, what it was like here, it was something I wanted to be a part of.”

As his coach, Ryan says things fell into place for Tiger to land at “definitely the right spot” to complement his game.

“We’ve been back every couple of years, and then the opportunity to play in state tournaments there — that’s the best place to play the state tournament, we love playing in The Dee,” Ryan said. “But to be back there on the recruiting trip, just sitting back and observing everything … we bleed purple still, so were just kind of bringing that back.”

MORE SIGNINGS

Cuff is currently one of four players set to sign with Weber State men’s basketball in the 2024 class.

Two were announced by the school Wednesday night and will join the team in 2024: Washington shooting guard Trevor Hennig and Canadian wing David Hansen.

One more joins Tiger Cuff as a 2024 recruit who will join Weber State after two expected years of missionary service. That’s Hunter Hansen, the Fremont High senior who has played with Cuff (in AAU ball) and against him (in high school tournaments) for several years.

“The coaches have been really great about me serving a mission,” Tiger said. “And me and Hunter met my sophomore year, we played club together with Utah Basketball Club and kind of built a relationship. So it’s been cool knowing him. … I love Hunter, definitely someone to look forward to having a journey with at Weber State.”

WSU will add at least one more player to the 2024 class to join the team next school year.

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