One day after attending the Awards Banquet, freshman point guard Shaquille Stokes announced that he will be leaving the Hawai’i basketball team for family reasons.
Stokes confirmed his decision to WarriorInsider.com, and said he will finish this semester at UH, then return to his home in New York immediately after that.
Stokes’ grandmother recently became very ill, and the family wanted him to return, according to Hawai’i head coach Gib Arnold.
“He actually talked about leaving several times earlier in the season, but we talked it through,” Anrold said. “But this time … he’s close to his grandmother, who helped raise him, and she got sick and took a turn for the worse last week. He actually wanted to leave right away, but we told him he needs to finish school if he wants to keep playing (basketball), whether it’s here or back home, so that’s what he’s going to do.”
Meet assistant coach Rob Jones.
Stokes finished fourth on the team in scoring during the 2011-12 season with 8.4 points per game, and second in assists with 2.2 per game. He was a starter early in the season, but then played a back-up role when senior Miah Ostrowski joined the team after the football season.
Stokes started the team’s last two games of the season in the WAC Tournament in place of sick starter Zane Johnson, and responded with a total of 38 points in those two games. He was expected to challenge for a starting guard spot as a sophomore in the 2012-13 season.
Stokes was a highly-touted recruit a year ago. As a senior at Lincoln High, he was named the New York City Player of the Year by the New York Daily News at a banquet on Tuesday night, and was previously a finalist for the New York Mr. Basketball Award.