The biggest recruiting coup of Jim Hayford's career wasn't a result of shrewd talent evaluation at a grassroots tournament or timely advice from a trustworthy high school coach.

It came via a tip from an airplane seatmate.

One year before Hayford left Division III titan Whitworth College for Division I lightweight Eastern Washington in 2011, he bumped into longtime referee Frank Harvey as they boarded the same flight out of Spokane. Harvey eventually asked Hayford if he'd consider watching game film of his son, a late-blooming guard with a smooth jump shot but no scholarship offers. Hayford politely agreed as a favor to a longtime friend even if he wasn't optimistic it would be worth his time.

"You don't last long going on other people's opinions — especially not a father's opinion of his own son," Hayford said. "But once I saw him, I was pleasantly surprised by his ability to drive and to shoot. I said, 'This kid's going to be pretty good.'"

Though Hayford had the foresight to invite the referee's son to walk on at Eastern Washington when he landed that job, the Eagles coach is the first to admit he had no idea how good Tyler Harvey would become. The younger Harvey has since evolved into college basketball's ultimate underdog story, living proof that anything's possible with hard work and good fortune.

The same kid who didn't receive a single scholarship offer in high school now leads college basketball in scoring at 24.0 points per game. The same kid who stood barely 5-foot-4 after eighth grade has since grown a foot and added muscle to his slight frame. The same kid who didn't make his high school's varsity team until his junior year now has Eastern Washington eying its first league title in 11 years and NBA scouts traveling to remote Cheney, Wash., to see him play.

"If you had told me all that when I was still in high school, I probably would have laughed at you," Harvey said. "I would never have thought any of this was possible. It's just a blessing to be in the position I'm in now."

It's a testament to Harvey's passion for basketball that he didn't give up the sport years ago.

Harvey attended Bishop Montgomery High School, a prestigious Southern California basketball power that has won three state championships and produced numerous Division I prospects. His own father suggested entering ninth grade that he focus on baseball, a sport more forgiving to an athlete whose parents both are 5-foot-7 and whose extended family features nobody taller than 6 feet.

Though Harvey tried out for the Bishop Montgomery baseball team, he gave up the roster spot he earned the next day because he preferred to focus exclusively on basketball. He didn't want to give up on a sport he'd grown to love from playing it every day and from attending the college games his dad worked up and down the West Coast.

"My thing was, whatever my kid decides to do, I'm going to support him," Frank Harvey said. "At that time, I thought he was going to be a good JV player and that might be it, but I figured it was fine as long as he was happy."

View photos Tyler Harvey (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) More

What altered Harvey's basketball trajectory was his insatiable work ethic, his tremendous feel for the game and a late growth spurt nobody saw coming. By the end of his freshman year, he eclipsed his parents' height. By the end of his sophomore year, he was pushing 6 feet. By the end of his junior year, he was growing too fast for his own good as coordination issues and knee pain forced him to take a few months off from basketball to let his body recover.

Story continues