Brazilian could be interested in Hawaii
Rafael Maia, a 6-foot-9, 235-pound forward/center, is the latest prep recruit on the radar of the Hawaii basketball team.
Maia (No. 13 in video and photo) is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, but will play this upcoming season at Maine Central Institute, a college preparatory school.
Several sources have stated that Maia has already made a recruiting visit to Hawaii, but warriorinsider.com has not been able to confirm.
Newenglandrecruitingreport.com recently described Maia as “a bruising 6-9 center has the strength and physicality to bang on the block with virtually anyone in class AAA and the skills to score his fair share of points.”
Based on his highlight videos, Maia can score from inside and out.
A connection could be Hawaii associate coach Walter Roese, who also coaches the under-18 and junior national teams for Brazil.
Now this is an impressive piece of film. While the young man does not look quite all of 6’9″ (maybe 6’8″), he has terrific footwork and ball skills – I would say, better than Kurtz and Joaquim and at least equivalent to Bill Amis – right now, with one more year of prep school to go. And as I understand it, the New England prep school league in which Maia is playing is very competitive and good. So while he may not be the great shot blocking, rebounding, defensive wiz the team needs (of course, maybe he is), they should take this guy in a flash, if they can get him. This video makes Maia look much better than Ronnie Stevens, even if Stevens is taller and longer.
so finally news of the brazilian surfaces.
thanks dayton. this makes sense since news of a brazilian was kept on the low down and i would to if i were the staff. with room for just one more scholie and if cain is wavering, this would make sense to try and land him during the early period so we can focus on the season and 2012 recruiting.
i agree that in the video he didn’t look 6’9… but maybe it’s because all the players in the game were tall. at the very end of the video, there is a picture of him with his dad(?). and he certainly looks 6-9 in that picture… unless his dad is really, really short.
anyway. he looked pretty impressive, both attacking the basket and shooting 3’s.
i thought we were also after that guy two persons to his left. anyway, a big time center was also being considered from the nat’l jr team and he’s supposed to be 6’11”.
That would be nice but I’m just hoping we get Maia. Having one stud from Brazil committed could open the pipeline…