Nevels earns weekly honor in prestigious summer league
Garrett Nevels is still three weeks away from arriving on the University of Hawai’i campus, but that doesn’t mean he’s on summer vacation.
Nevels, one of the incoming recruits for the Hawai’i basketball team, has been busy making a name for himself in the prestigious Drew League in Los Angeles.
The 6-foot-2 guard was recently named the league’s Player of the Week after recording 31 points, five rebounds and four steals to lead his team (Hank’s A1 All-Stars) to a key victory.
“I was just glad we got the win,” Nevels said. “I happened to play a good game, so it was cool. I was just finding open shots and making them. I wasn’t rushing anything – I hit some 3s, a couple from mid-range, floaters, free throws.”
The award is significant when considering that the Drew League is not your average summer league. It features 28 teams, and the rosters include a mix of professional, college, junior college and playground stars, and even celebrities. Former NBA all-star Gilbert Arenas is in the league this summer, as is rapper/actor The Game.
“Some NBA players come out later in the summer to play a couple of games,” said Nevels, who is in his third summer with the Drew League. “It’s a high-level league. There’s always a crowd and teams don’t want to lose, so the games can get pretty intense.”
Nevels said he will play in the Drew League for the next three weeks, then plans to attend summer school at UH starting in early July. He said he will also play in the Hawaii College Basketball Summer League after he arrives.
“I can’t wait to get out there,” he said. “I’m doing what I can to get ready.”
Nevels led Mount San Antonio College (Calif.) to the championship of the California Community College Athletic Association as a sophomore last season. He was named the MVP of the championship tournament. He will be a junior at Hawai’i for the 2013-14 season.
Welcome aboard as a Rainbow Warrior Garrett. You will enjoy much success in the classroom towards your major, as well as winning many games in the BWC and onto post season tournaments. Enjoy the Aloha State and work towards graduation! Mahalo, thankyou for becoming a Rainbow Warrior!
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Great award and recognition Garrett. You are a great addition to the UH MBB team! Hope you have a great two year run with the team and lead them to championships!
Thanks for joining the MBB Ohana(family!)
uhfanzonly1.
Nevels,
You will be an all-star here. We’re stoked to have you aboard! Can next season start already?? LOL!
Pencil in Nevels as a starter. Offense, defense, efficiency. Shoots over 40% on 3s, shoots over 55% overall, over 80% from the line. Gets steals, makes floaters too. Does it all as a SG.
Awesome news. Here are Week 5 highlights… Nevels only has 1 clip at the 1:00 mark.
http://www.drewleague.com/blog/2013/06/19/2013-drew-league-week-5-highlights/
THREE-Guard Offense SHOULD be more Effective
when ALL THREE Guards are “More Complete” Players…
(MAYBE All Guards are more ʻCompleteʻ depending on Off-Season Skill Improvements
Offense, Defense, Passing, Scoring, Shooting…
AND “Relatively Proven High Performers”…
(D-1 and/or Playoff Performance…)
Steppinʻ Up ʻBows!
These are The Good Kineʻ (of) Steals…
This is the year it all comes together for Gib’s Warriors, crucial time. It’s Warrior time! Nevels for starter at the two.!!
I really like a possible lineup of Sham, Nevels, Spearman, Standhardinger, and Fotu. This would allow us to play quick, good defense, and allow us to run for days… rebounding would be key for this lineup. Bring Q. Smith, Jawato, Valdes, Thomas, and Rozitis off the bench as the main subs.
I’d go with:
Rozitis
Fotu
Standhardinger
Nevels
Shamburger
Rozitis needs to stay out of foul trouble
Dayton,
don’t mean to go off the track on your Nevel’s blog but would you have any knowledge on the Manoa Summer League bb rosters?
Impressive. The Drew league boasts tons of athletic guys, who are older and play more physical than D1 players. Nevels will transition fine into D1 ball.
I see a lot of people discussing whether or not if Nevels should start at Shooting Guard over Spearman. I definitely understand why people would want that. The statistics are amazing. Nevels averaged 19.8 PPG with shooting nearly 58% from the field. Those statistics may be great but I actually found more information on Nevels. I did my research and according to this source: http://www.cccaastats.org/sports/mbkb/2012-13/players/garretnevelsk7bb ,Garrett Nevels didn’t play great in conference games. His numbers are totally different. In conference Nevels averaged 16 PPG with shooting 48% from the field. Not to mention Nevels doesn’t have any other outstanding statistics other than in the scoring category. Is there a possibility we could be too much hype on Nevels? He did play collegiate Basketball last season for Mount San Antonio College which is a Division III school. Averaging around twenty in Division III isn’t worth the hype honestly. Remember Jack Taylor who scored 113 points against Faith Baptist? As you can see Nevels offensive game could be overrated and possibly could outlook his weaknesses. I am not saying Nevels is a terrible player. I really do think this kid can put up double digits and might even have the potential to be a player who could even score seventeen points a game. All I am saying is that Nevels could be overrated. I remember how there was so much talk about Ji Xiang a Chinese prospect who was recruited by Hawaii. Everybody was expecting him to be great but he was a bust while playing in Hawaii. The lesson here is that we can’t be expecting too much out of incoming players.
Now I have my reasons for starting Spearman over Nevels. The fact that Nevels hasn’t played a Division I collegiate Basketball game makes me want to start Spearman because he has the experience. Spearman knows what to expect. Sure, Nevels is playing in the Drew League but that isn’t true Division I Basketball. It’s a totally different atmosphere. Another reason I would start Spearman over Nevels is because of strength. Of you were to take a look at picture of this article you would be able to tell that one of Nevels weaknesses is his strength and toughness. Nevels is 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds. I weigh more than Garrett Nevels. That kid needs to lift and gain some weight. There is no doubt that he is going to be taken advantage of when playing against these Division I players. His height doesn’t help him either. I know that Spearman isn’t tall either but Spearman does have weight and muscle on him and won’t be bumped around by these players as much. Not to mention the Warriors always go on scoring slumps. There is always a period of time the Warriors go cold and can’t seem to get the lid of the basket. Spearman hasn’t proven to be consistent yet so Nevels, Smith and Jawato coming off the bench would be a great spark plug for the Warriors in time of having “cotton mouth”.
Some say that both can start, Nevels at Shooting Guard and Spearman at Small Forward. I would have to object to that as well. That is too much of a defensive liability for the Warriors. Lack of height will give Warriors problems in giving up second chance points to their opponents or getting second chance buckets themselves. Although there has been Rick Adleman (Coach of the Minnesota T-Wolves) who uses a three guard lineup with Rubio, Shved and Ridnour. But can the Warriors really run that offense? That offense needs players who can pass the ball well and efficiently. Not sure if Nevels or Spearman can are up to the challenge. Ridnour, Rubio and Shved all played Point Guard so they pass the ball well. Players like Nevels and Spearman who aren’t natural Point Guards won’t be good in Rick Adleman’s offense. Not to mention the Warriors can’t even run a simple offense against a mediocre defense in UC Irvine (If you haven’t watched the game I suggest you don’t because if was terrible). If they can’t run their simple offense I doubt they can run a offense with three guards in the lineup. So the best thing to do is start Spearman and have Nevels come off the bench.
aieayear01: You bring up valid points. Incoming recruits, are not proven except for RS JR. transfer Negus Webster-Chan who will be eligible in 2014-15, he had DI game experience at Missouri.
My starting five:
Keith Shamburger(DI experience, All Wac guard)
Brandon Spearman(D1 experience Dayton and Hawaii)
Brandon Jawato(D1 experience, until got injured last year, freshman with Hawaii)
Isaac Fotu(D1 experience and Freshman All American)
Christian Standhardinger(D1 esperience Nebraska, and All BWC first team last year)
Nevels, Smith, Flipovich, will provide needed depth at the guard position. At least Shamburger, Smith, and Flipovich are true PG’s. Hawaii, had PG in Tavita last year, however, reluctant to score and not as quick as BWC guards. With Shamburger, a healthy Jawato and Spearman, UH backcourt should be okay. With a stronger and better Fotu and Standhardinger, and whatever contributions, Michael Thomas, Caleb Dressler and Davis Rozitis can bring to the frontcourt, UH will be vastly improved at every position.
That starting five , with Shamburger, Spearman and Jawato, those three guards have ability to score, and are stronger than Smith and Nevels, Flipovich. However, we have to wait until fall practices, Nevels, Smith, and Flipovich, could make an impact. I just love having at least 3 PG’s who can handle the ball(hopefully) run O and D sets, defend and score. Hope all of them can shoot well from FT line.
If Gib adds ONE MORE, he has an extra scholarship for 2013-14, a 6’7″- 6’9″ athletic scoring and defending SF/PF, who is a good one, UH will be a very good team, once again, with that D1 experience as you alluded to, of Shamburger, Spearman, Fotu, Standhardinger, Jawato, and Rozitis.
The Summer time is where BB players improve the most. If the returnees, come back stronger, better shooters, decision makers, FT shooters, rebounders, ball handlers, BB IQ wise, UH will be in the hunt for BWC regular or tourney title, it falls heavily on what the returnees and incoming recruits, do to get better, from June 2013 till Nov 2013 first game of the season.
Aiea, Summer Leauge is almost here, returnees and newbies will be arriving for second summer session of UH, and workouts with coaches, should be exciting. This group, looks like they are on a mission, this is their year, the three seniors, Spearman, Rozitis, Standhardinger, to get a championship and go dancing. I hope they Do!!
😀 !!
aiea: Just to set the record straight, Mt. Sac is a junior (community) college, not a Division III school. And Nevels played well enough in conference to be named first-team All-South Coast North Division and first-team All-State in the Southern section. In 13 conference games, he averaged 16.8 points on 51.7 percent shooting (41 percent from 3-point range) and 78.7 percent from the FT line. All in all, not bad wouldn’t you say?
That being said, whether he’s ready to start (I can’t see him unseating Spearman) in a “smaller” lineup or not, guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I could easily see Nevels starting with Sham, Spear, Stand and Fotu.
My starting 5. Shamburger, Nevels, Valdes or Thomas, Standhardinger, and Isaac. 6th man, Spearman.
@Clyde: Fail on my part but since you have clarified that Mt. SAC is a Community College and not a Division III school then that proves my point much more. I am saying that there could be too much hype around Nevels, that is where I am trying to get at here. Now personally I believe that 16.8 PPG in conference in a Community College league isn’t impressive to me. According to the coaches he has potential to score big in Division I ball but I am just saying we can’t be thinking Nevels is going to come in and score lights out for the Warriors.
@playhoopsa: I would be all for bringing in another big man with an avaliable scholarship that Hawaii has. But will there be room on the roster? That’s the only problem here. I would really like to see the Warriors bring in a high flying big man who can dunk, play great in transition and is great defensively. A 6-foot-8 Power Forward maybe. There really hasn’t been a player with that style of play that I recall playing for the Warriors ever. I remember watching the game Hawaii played against New Mexico State a while back when they were still in the WAC Cinference. New Mexico State was so entertaining to watch because their big men were great in transition and were dunking like crazy. I would just like to see a player like that playing for Hawaii. There are actually still some High School Basketball recruits at the Power Forward position who are still avaliable. On ESPN Recruiting Nation I came across a great player who hasn’t got any offers from any schools yet. So Hawaii could pick these kids up if they tried. Unfourtantly the Warriors recruit their bigs out of Europe. I honestly don’t like European bigs because their theirs games are soft compared to American players. They’re not great rebounders and seem to get pushed around in the paint a lot. My guess is that they don’t look to work on that part of the game as much because they focus heavily on shooting mechanics more explains why there are many great shooting big men (Vladimir Radmanovic, Andrea Bargnani, etc.). I just prefer big men who use the post more rather than big men who spread the floor to shoot the ball. I would rather have a Marcin Gortat than a Chris Bosh for example. It would be awesome to see that.
Yeah, you don’t like foreign bigs, that’s why you rather have Gortat over bosh….lol
@mid-range game Oh I fail I just notice that
@mid-range game Andrew Bogut over Chris Bosh, how about that haha
aieayear01:
I really appreciate your contributions to this forum! It makes for lively discussion and debate. I too, would like for UH MBB team to have from 1 through 13 scholarship athletes who are athletic, have hops, quicks, are strong, can dunk, shoot FT’s , mid range to 3 line game and run like gazelles. Also, a lot of defensive pressure, to cause turnovers, get out in transition and score near 80 pts per game while holding opposition to below 50 pts per game. However, for Gib and his program, he has to get the best Students and young people, who will graduate and stay with program till eligibility is done.
I think Gib is doing that. As for the increase in athleticism, albeit, not top 30 players in the nation, the Shamburgers, Spearmans, Jawatos, Valdes’, Thomas’, Smiths and Nevels, along with two very good PF/hybrid forwards in Fotu and Standhardinger are good fits for the BWC. Rozitis has to get stronger, be better offensively , defensively and rebound better. He is very agile. Dressler will be the enforcer type. Not the fastest Big, yet strong and BBIQ smart. Good shooting touch, and wide body, strong. Jovanovich, might be the project, yet , we don’t know, yet…Up to the young athletes the old and new to work super hard this summer, get better, know their roles as Former UH Athlete mentions, since not all 13 active roster players are going to play 20 – 38 minutes a game. UH MBB should be alright.
Much better than the athletic ability, is how the team performed in school this past year. Their APR is good, and they should be set, with all available scholarships plus post season eligibility for years to come, as long as they keep it going on the academic side, the most important part of NCAA D1 MBB equation. Some times we forget. Good job Gib, coaching staff, academic advisors, and UH team both returnees, transfers, and newbies. All in good academic stead! Right on!!
aieayear01, once again, I enjoy your analysis, this site, is a very positive one, everyone chimes in to see how UH MBB can improve, get better, and what we would like to see Gib recruit. I love this WairriorInsider site! Thanks to Dayton Morinaga, Valerie Schmidt, Ameriprise, and the Schmidt Ohana,and other donors. UH MBB, has a chance to be very competitive this year, I can’t wait!!
And, aieayear01, I hope Gib gets THAT RIGHT FIT, athletic, high flying, phi slamma jamma, shot blocking, rim rocking, SF/PF to complete this year’s team, in my opinion, that addition, that super athletic scorer, who has great shooting touch, hops, and can run like a gazelle is the one component that would make UH MBB team really solid this year. Of course, to challenge for any championships and post season dances, it all starts in the Backcourt! If UH’s guards are much better than the last few years, look out, UH Rainbow Warriors will have a great year. I hope so!
Keep the comments coming aieayear01, I love to read your summaries, great job. Also, jjay, gobows, eagle, clyde, and everyone who has a great passion for the MBB program!!
😀
Mahalo fellow fans!! Can’t wait for summer league to start!(please guys, NO INJURIES, be HEALTHY Gang!)
This was posted by goodhand234 on the Big West basketball message board:
I was at the game and Hawaii fans are in for a treat if Nevels’ summer league game translates (and I believe it will) to D1 . I actually thought he was one of the pro players in the league.
What impressed me most was his fierce competitiveness in a meaningless summer league game. Former LBS guard Casper Ware and his younger brother tried to disrupt Nevels’ concentration at the free-throw line near the end of the game. Nevels shot them a look that would make Tony Soprano proud then calmly sank the free-throws. He also has good size. CSUN Honorable Mention All Conference guard Josh Greene didn’t get many minutes because of Nevels play.
His game kind of reminds me of former LBS player Aaron Nixon. He should be a very explosive scorer.
Hey my boy, playhoopsa, don’t forget the thunder from down under, the Australian Kid, the very good student, and great young man, Michael Harper! Aussie Mum, feed him well, and get him to train and come back, strong, help on O and D and shoot lights out from 3! Michael Harper will help team tremendously! He is a great kid!
Aussie Mum, you have a good boy !! Great young man and Australian Star Basketballer!
Uhfanzonly1.
Sorry, Uhfanz, Michael Harper will be good this year! He played very well in the C.I.T. game against AFA , almost helped UH win that game.
Not to forget, aieayear01, Niko Flipovich, and Aaron Valdes, young guys, with ability to develop, willing to walkon to program, that is unheard of with UH MBB program to have Tavita, Harper, Enos, Flipovich, and Valdes, a total of 5 guys with BB skills walkon to UH MBB team. Kudos to Gib and his relationship with their parents. Those young people must, really like Hawaii, it isn’t cheap, the tuition. Maybe this is the one school they have a chance to play D1 ball, however it is a great place to play! Wish the best to Michael Harper, Dyrbe Enos, Niko Flipovich and Aaron Valdes! Great Great young guys, who will help team in any way they can!!
Academically solid now!! Thanks to Coach Fish and Academic Advisors, and the athletes themselves!!
HawaiiMongoose:
Mahalo plenty for news from the Big Big Island, Mainland USA. You have the feeling that Nevels, Q Smith, Niko Flipovich, and Michael Thomas, are ones that are a great fit for BWC play. They are good students now too!
Man, oh man, if 2 or 3 of those guys, produce, UH will be rocking with some very good guards! If they are team players, can pass, unselfish, yet, when UH has to close out, or someone has to take over scoring when need be, Nevels, might be a possiblity, Good dilemma to have, 4 or 5 guards, who can handle. and score to close out games, the missing part of UH MBB the past few years!!
I can’t wait.
Right UH MBB fans.!! Pretty soon summer league, workouts, fall semester, than Nov 2013 first regular season game!!
Rozitis to start?! No way! I like Fotu at center with Christian at PF. Then go 3 guards with Nevels, sham and Spearman as stated earlier in another post. Why question nevels abilities? There is not a lot of video evidence and stats may suggest future success, but we still need the eye test. Just be patient guys. I cant wait for the season to start either. I think the boys will be good. I hope Harper gets to show off his shot this year. Jawato’s form doesn’t allow for consistency, Harper’s does. I don’t care if jawato is more athletic. His shot is not consistent enough. Go Warriors!
Should’ve gotten rid of the Rainbow.