Brandon Spearman commits to Hawai’i
The Hawai’i basketball team has been searching for some athletic wing players, and it landed one this week in Brandon Spearman.
Spearman, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound guard, made an official visit to Hawai’i last weekend and said that he is committed to joining the Warriors for the 2012-13 season.
Spearman just completed his sophomore season at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa. He averaged 11.6 points per game and made 53 3-pointers for a balanced team that had a 33-4 record and finished the season ranked No. 7 in the junior college national poll.
“I based this decision off the coaching and the players,” Spearman said. “They have some really cool coaches and I got to meet the players and felt like it would be a good fit for me.”
Spearman has a vertical jump estimated at 38 inches, and is described as “an all-around talent” by Indian Hills head coach Barret Peery.
“I think Hawai’i is getting a guy who can score both getting to the rim as well as from the perimeter,” Peery said. “He’s a strong shooter and a solid ball-handler, just an all-around talent.”
Spearman said: “What ever the coaches want me to do, I can do it. I can slash to the hole, I can shoot the 3 ball, I think I’m an all-around player. What ever I can do to help the team win, I’ll do it.”
When Spearman was a high school senior in Chicago in 2010, he was ranked as one of the top 100 recruits in the nation by Rivals.com. He was a reserve player at the University of Dayton as a freshman, and then transferred to Indian Hills for his sophomore season.
“Dayton was going through a coaching change, so I wanted to get out of there,” he said. “The coaches that recruited me went to Georgia Tech, and it just wasn’t a good fit for me.”
Spearman will have two seasons of eligibility at Hawai’i, and can play immediately as a junior in the upcoming 2012-13 season.
Several other programs were recruiting Spearman out of Indian Hills, including Wake Forest, Penn State, Iowa, TCU and San Francisco. “Some of them stopped calling, but Hawai’i was there the whole way,” he said. “That was big for me – building that relationship.”
Spearman spent two days in Honolulu last weekend on his recruiting visit, and said the sunshine and beaches offered a bonus.
“It’s about the school and the team, but we did a lot of other stuff,” he said. “We ate at some good places and we went out canoeing one day – that was crazy … I never thought I would do something like that in my life.”
Peery added that Spearman is a “solid” student with a likeable personality. “He was a (academic) qualifier out of high school and was at a good school in Dayton as a freshman, so he knows what it takes to be a Division I student-athlete,” Peery said. “He’s been a quality guy at our place as well. He’s just a good person to have on the floor as well as off the floor.”
Spearman was one of four recruits to visit Hawai’i last weekend, and he is the first to make a known commitment. He is expected to make it official later this week when he signs a national letter of intent.
The Hawai’i coaches cannot comment on a recruit until the letter of intent is signed and approved.
Here is a highlight video of Spearman from two years ago, when he was a senior at Simeon High in Chicago. The athleticism was already apparent:
Welcome Brandon!
Be a part of the Ohana(family), Hawaii will love your game and passion. Do well in school and help the Warrior Basketball game get to the Dance.
Coach Gib and staff and players want to go to next level, …great addition to team!
This guy reminds me of Geremy Robinson! Good get, Coach!
Awesome, let’s get the other three or more that came in ! Great athlete ,combo guard that can shoot and handle the ball.
Welcome Again, Brandon!
The Spearman is a Warrior (of course!)
[When you get a Chance, check out Hawai’lian Warrior Petroglyphs …
UH even has guys who can turn that petroglyph into an awesome buzz cut…]
Great additions with Spearman and Shamburger. Now hope we add Givon Crump, Aaric Armstead and one of Forte/Hamilton
Great pickup. Solid athlete with a good all-around game. Should fit in nicely with the returning players.
Adding Givon Crump and either Aaric Armstead/Blake Hamilton will make this a very nice class that addresses both the present and future.
A great addition to the team. He looks good on the highlight video.
do the best you can to make sure you get here…too bad shamburger will have to sit next season..3-4 players away from being pretty good
Two or Three “Performers” from being a “Conference Top” or NCAA Challenging Team – the good news is that a Brereton or Dressler or Lev or Fotu or Spearman …etc. could be the two or three needed to take a Vander, Standhardinger & Stokes TEAM to “The Next Level” …. Intriguing Possibilities … it would seem at the worst, another year away from being a Team to be Reckoned With … A Little (NOW) Off-Season Work and “Maybe” we ‘re looking at “This” Season as The Team Nobody wants to roll the dice with … ADD a Forte or Hamilton or Crump or Other and it can become “overwhelming” — we’ll see…and soon …Looks like Fun on a Level we haven’t seen for awhile …
hopefully orel can be the next zane johnson with a little more athleticism…hopefully jawato is a better bo barnes…tavita being a wiseman hustle player like but with better offense..and getting 2-3 more players that can contribute right away
He’s got that Tom Hendersen build. A slasher to the basket, shots the three’s….what’s not to like?
Anybody missing Miles, Wiseman or Thomas now?
Brandon looks like the real deal. Hopefully he plays some defense, but I can see he has the athleticism to compete at a high level. He’s a multidimensional scorer and can slash and shoot. Zane was a good shooter, but that was about it.
I expect UH to win the Big West this season and get back to the NCAA tournament. There is not a single team in the Big West that can match UH’s size and athleticism next season. Just a matter of executing and staying out of foul trouble. UH has a lot of firepower next year…
Whoa, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.. While Spearman might end up being pretty good, Josten will definitely be missed.. At best, he was beast inside who provided interior scoring and was a nice complement to Vander.. At worst, he provided depth.. It wasn’t too long ago that people on Rainbow Warrior message boards were comparing Thomas to LeBron James..
need to concentrate on getting Hamilton, Armstead ,Forte! Lets go Gib , Warriors!
Still wondering who the other two or three guys were that visited over the weekend, or is it still a secret??
matt jjust because we get spearman doesn’t mean BW title and ncaa tournament bid..we still 2-4 players away..joston is a big loss
McTruck, according to this morning’s Star Advertiser, Cameron Forte, Blake Hamilton and Givon Crump were the other 3.. For what it’s worth, the paper went on to say that Forte and Crump were more likely to join the Bows than Hamilton..
Lono…mahalo.
The article in HSA actually said Hamilton & Forte are considered likelier possibilities to join U.H….
Let’s hope we get either Armstead or Hamilton… and now another PG.
This guy is a virus to a team. What none of these stories say is that he wasn’t welcomed back onto the Dayton team the following year after Brian Gregory left because he and his roommate Juwan Staten (also transferred) had terrible attitudes the whole time they were there. Here’s hoping he can grow up/mature a little and be a better teammate and player for the Warriors. Good luck!