Summer League highlights
The Hawaii basketball team is doing its share to make the Hawaii College Basketball Summer League exciting.
Several Warriors again had solid performances this week in the summer league games at Manoa Valley Recreation Gym.
Zane Johnson and Trevor Wiseman are both playing key roles for an Electricians Hawaii team that is undefeated in the six-team league. Johnson and Wiseman each scored 20 points in the last game, a 110-104 victory over Army on Thursday.
Hauns Brereton has been impressive for the Army team, and his shooting prowess prompted the Electricians Hawaii team to play special defenses against him.
Jace Tavita also had a nice shooting night on Thursday, draining six 3-pointers and scoring 22 points to help lead Central Medical Clinic to a 93-91 win over Grantco Pacific.
Teammate Pi’i Minns also played well with his usual hustle, and is gaining valuable experience as a point guard for Central Medical Clinic.
Seven-footer Davis Rozitis was impressive for Grantco Pacific, scoring 20 points on a variety of shots.
Bobby Miles added 14 points for Grantco Pacific, including the play of the night when he threw down a dunk over Tavita (sorry, no video of his dunk, but the proof is in one of the photos below).
Other Warriors participating in the summer league are Joston Thomas, Shaquille Stokes, Brandon Jawato, Tyler Brown and Tyler McDaniels. Those players did not play on Thursday, but they were in attendance to cheer on their teammates.
Also below are several other photos courtesy of Brandon Flores/www.brandonfloresphotography.com.
Man I can’t wait to see these guys in action this year. Can’t believe Bobby Miles had that kind of hop to get one on Jace… Anyway, from the looks of things, Shaq Stokes and Bobby Miles can definitely hold it down running the point and with Miah coming in December we’ll be all good. Pi’i seems like a hustle guy and would be a good compliment to our other guards. Zane will be Zane popping off from all over the court, but I see Hauns also being a big time scorer for us. Both have ridiculous range and hit with accuracy. Tavita and Jawato would be nice compliments to give them a spell off the bench. Still hope Gerry Blakes makes it cause he is gonna be a beast once he gets stronger. Trevor Wiseman is just a pest, seems to always be in the right place for a rebound, defensive stop or easy bucket…reminds me of Dennis Rodman. Plus I think Joston Thomas will be much improved and unlike last year will have steady minutes in the rotation. I hope Brumfield has healed enough cause I think he’s got some potential to contribute. Biggs if he gets his stuff straight is going to be a future All-Star, but lets hope he takes care of business. I think Davis Rozitis will be a huge surprise this year. He’s not much of a banger as Vander is but with both of them down low it’ll be hard to score in the paint this year. I think he will be a key figure in the rotation. Vander to me is a double-double machine who I feel still has much more to his game. He started coming on strong towards the end of the year but I still think he has a lot more to his game. Definitely one of the better big men we’ve had in awhile. Hopefully Coach Taylors son will get acclimated quickly cause we need another big now that Ronnie Stevens is out. Don’t think Tyler Brown is much of a D1 player from what I’ve seen so I doubt he’ll get significant PT if he makes the team. Hopefully Coach Gib got some other big who could sign late or if not, next year getting some bigs would be key!
I am soo impressed with Davis Rozitis. He is definitely not a tall stiff like many perceive. I think he will surprise a lot of people.
I agree Josh, Rozitis doesn’t look like a stiff. Hopefully he doesn’t get pushed around, but man, he looks like he can actually contribute. He’s the anti-Kurtz.
Brereton though looks like he might be the jewel of the recruiting class. This guys just looks like a solid basketball player. He’ll force wiseman to sit, which isn’t a bad thing since he’s still young and needs to develop some offense.
More and more the 2011-2012 season might be Gib’s huge breakout year as a coach. Hopefully he doesn’t get enticed to go elsewhere.
Hauns is a scorer but I highly doubt our most gritty and probably best defensive player will sit in Trevor Wiseman. He is the type of player you’d want on the court to get you those stops, garbage points and rebounds. Anybody can score but not everybody can play defense. You’ve got to want to play defense but these days all players care about is looking good on offense. Wiseman has some offensive skills, his role isn’t to provide offense in Coach Gibs system, his role is more of a defensive presence. He was a do all player in high school, running point, playing inside and out, rebounding, etc… I guarantee you Coach Gib will play someone who plays defense first more than anything. I mean we weren’t one of the top defensive teams in the WAC let alone the nation for nothing. It took guys like Wiseman who focuses on defense first… I think another guy who could provide some strong defensive stops is Pi’i Minns, he seems like a hustler and works hard on D, plus he’s got good hands for rips too…
Davis Rozitis will be a star too once he gets some significant PT, any big that can move like him could be dangerous. He’s got size, good feet, moves well without the ball, can get buckets…if he can bang down low and grab some boards then it’s all good… He’ll need to play big this year cause it’ll be only he and Vander getting most of the minutes since we lost Ronnie Stevens…
Although they won’t ALL Immediately Show the flash that perks our optimism — IF any walk-ons stay with the team, work hard and get coached-up, i wouldn’t count any of them out for developing good BB, Team or winning skills .. if nothing else, the walk-ons provide a necessary five or six fouls at each position, will be smart role-players (got to play defense) and allow the scorers the freedom to do their thing or sit when in foul trouble, gassed or need to talk side-line strategy …
IF we can end up with 8 to 10 players, Gib & Co. CAN do A LOT …
i’d say we’re there IF we get in at least TWO More from Vander, Blakes and/or Biggs …
AND we’ll probably get one to three good role players (or better) out of the rest already on board …
What happened with Ronnie?
John,
Ronnie Stevens didn’t qualify academically and is going to play Juco somewhere. Same with Dillon Biggs and Gerry Blakes both are taking summer school classes right now to try and qualify for admittance to UH, if they don’t make the grade than that is two more academic casualties we would have suffered in this recruiting class. Already DeShawn Mitchell and Ronnie Stevens are out due to academics. Lets hope Gerry and Dillon get their grades right!
These UH guys are looking good. Hauns looks like a big time scorer.
Everyone needs to keep an eye on this kid Tavita. I can see him contributing on both ends of the floor and being the teams go to defensive stopper. while in the mwc with the University of Utah he was put in a situation where the coach wanted to run a half court offense. Which definately didn’t suit his playing style. If the coaches here at UH can have more faith in this kid than his coaches at the University of Utah did the sky is the limit.
is it just me or does Tavita play like Ramon Sessions? Hes got the length a nice first step and it looks like hes got his confidence back after the nightmare of playing at the University of Utah> Welcome to Hawaii>>>>>