Warrior Insider

The Inside Source for Hawaii Men's Basketball
Search

Some open gym highlights

Screen shot 2013-07-22 at 11.56.53 PM

If the summer months are all about putting in extra work, the Hawai’i basketball team is up to the task.

A typical day for the Warriors might consist of summer school classes, individual workouts, followed by an open gym session, and then a Summer League game at night.

Thirteen of the players from the 2013-14 roster are currently attending summer school courses at UH, and are adhering to the busy daily schedule. The players in town are: Caleb Dressler, Dyrbe Enos, Niko Filipovich, Isaac Fotu, Brandon Jawato, Stefan Jovanovic, Garrett Nevels, Keith Shamburger, Quincy Smith, Brandon Spearman, Michael Thomas, Aaron Valdes, and Negus Webster-Chan.

In the open gym session video above, Filipovich and Fotu did not participate due to injuries. Filling in were former UH player Pi’i Minns and potential walk-on Wesley Armbrust.

Among the returnees yet to arrive in Hawai’i are Christian Standhardinger (training in Germany), Davis Rozitis (training in Latvia) and Michael Harper (awaiting visa clearance in Australia).

— — — — —

The Hawai’i College Basketball Summer League will pick up the pace with three sessions per week for the next two weeks. This week’s games are scheduled for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at Manoa Valley District Park, with the first game to start at 6 p.m. each night.

17 Comments

  1. Dayton Mahalo for video of open gym! Great stuff!

    Uhfanzonly1.

  2. Hi, EVERYONE:

    I am always grateful to you for making this events a constant reality (even in silence).
    It is a perfect FIX for all the good basketball junkies!

    Most importantly, we got a group of dedicated, talented, intelligent young men polishing their athletic skills and, diligently earning their individual degree in such an ideal environment, all met with the proper personal behavior expectations (they are just too-good. Many proud parents!).

    Numbers are increasing; Momentums are powerfully charging forward. Positive result has never been this rosy!

    Hawaii No Ka Oi!!!

  3. Mahalo, Dayton

    Different Skills and Disciplines

    More Movement without the ball, screening, cutting, flashing and passing

    Also looks like Challenging and playing Defense may be more of an All-the-Time thing…

    and more activity at or above the rim…

    Lookinʻ like Best Gib era team yet….

  4. Good stuff Dayton ! Mahalo.

  5. nevels looks like the real deal and will challenge for the starting spot…big time block on Michael Thomas who im scared of from what I’ve seen so far…could be another year we are weak at the wing

  6. hawaiifan09

    Yea, MT must still be suffering from an earlier medical issue. Don’t know what it is but I don’t see the aggressiveness from him yet. In this clip and at the summer league games. He looks really young in person but with a large type body. I see a lot of growth and potential. I think he will show even more improvement tonite.

    With his length, he should have monster dunked on Nevels haha.

    Great stuff Dayton.

  7. warriorhaw:

    Good observation on MT, he should be skying and flushing ball from a standing position, as well as blocked shots, steals, and mid range to low block game. That is what he did in HS. The transition to wing is hard. Remember Michael Thomas, did not get medical clearance, to participate in UH workouts, and part of UH agenda MBB until he got cleared. Michael could have a medical issue, or he is so young, and learning new role, and going against some good athletes, or stronger older guys, takes time. I agree, His Size, MT looks like he could grow another inch or two, maybe 6’7″ or 6’8″, he might need a full year to develop , maybe RS, I was hoping not. Another guy you would hope, would be flying high in open gym is Aaron Valdes, I think Dayton got the best hilites he could/

    One thing, the guards, all of them, get steals, deflections, and can block the bigs, those five, Nevels, Spearman, Jawato, Shamburger, and Q Smith, working as one of defense will help UH MBB big time this year. And all 5 can shoot it from 3 to the rim. With Fotu and Standhardinger, who will be absolute beasts this year. shoots, looks like SSC will be rockin and rolling !

  8. I like Q Smith’s game. A REAL PG mentality, looking to set guys up. He has the handles, BBIQ, has to eliminate too many behind the back passes, until the team is in sync, avoid a lot of turnovers. Q and Sham, ARE the 2 PG’s UH MBB Gib era has been missing since first year. Set up guys, with ability to get to rim and FT line, with occasional, 3 to mid range game. With Nevels, and agree with other posts, that young guy, is the real deal. No wonder he did well in the Drew League.

    Well Gib has a stable of athletic, guards. If they ramp up the full court pressure, half court traps, and a lot of steals, deflections , blocked shots and runouts. Should be fun this year!

    DREW LEAGUE TOP PERFORMER PROFILE: GARRETT NEVELS

  9. First things first , Issac needs to heal , and get stronger physically, not more anemic. Drink your muscle Milk and lift Issac. We also hope Christian and Davis the Beast come back looking physically stronger especially in the upper body. Good luck the rest of summer league Warriors!

  10. only thing im worried about our guards is playing time…they all can contribute right away and we’ve seen it every year so far that players will leave mostly because of PT…..Michael Thomas please show us something tonight lol

  11. Thanks for he video… BB season cant get here soon enough.

    Notes/Observations:
    -This group of Bows can play above the rim. That’s something you don’t see much of in the Big West.

    -NWC is really good, noticeably more talented than everybody else.

    -UH has major upgrades in talent and quickness at the guard positions. Gib has done an excellent job of addressing the immediate needs to better compete with the smaller, guard heavy lineups in the Big West.

    -Jovanovic has very nice skills for a true freshman. He has multiple post moves, a nice touch, good fundamentals, and showed that he understands the pick n roll on both offense and defense. I loved the jam he had down the lane. I love the aggressiveness to go hard at the rim from the bigs

    -Dressler is definitely a finesse player. He has good ball skills and a very nice touch. He needs to develop a more aggressive approach on offense. He passed up a few shots when he could have used his big body to attack the rim.

    -I really wanted to see the two young centers, Dressler and Jovanovic in this video. They both need some work, but for freshmen, they look pretty good. They aren’t gangly uncoordinated tall guys (see Doug Kurtz, pre-2012 Rozitis) both Dressler and Jovanovic have good mobility and have nice touch and they should develop into a vicious tandem down low.

    -I was hoping to see more Michael Thomas but not enough airtime to get a good grip on his skill set.

  12. Some quick, unofficial stats from tonight’s games:

    Clark Hatch Fitness 108, National Fire Protection 74 (Thomas 18 points, Shamburger 14 points, 13 assists for Clark Hatch. Nevels 25 points for National Fire).

    Solar Universe 118, Grantco Pacific 101 (Spearman 22 points, 12 rebounds for Solar. Valdes 37 points, 12 rebounds for Grantco).

    Dayton will have a few more details to share later tonight or early tomorrow. Stay tuned.

  13. Hey, we have guards this year. Real guards! Woohoo!

    And I agree that both Jovanovic and Dressler look pretty skilled for freshmen. I’m glad UH will have each of those two contributing to the program for years to come.

    Yes it’s only open gym but this is encouraging.

  14. clyde: As always, YOU DA MAN! Thanks for update and report on tonite’s games! The UH guys like back in the day, are the dominant athletes in summer league. Just hope they stay healthy and don’t get serious injury. Man, it is so humid and hot, hope they hydrate and don’t lose too much good weight, just the excess body fat!

    Thank you Clyde. Hopefully this year,actually for Gib , it pretty much has to be, a winning good year, NIT or really NCAA or bust. Hope for the best!!

    All UH MBB fanatics, die hards, and newbies jump on board! Wait until Fotu, rehabs is back , Hopefully as was mentioned about Christian and Davis, they are getting stronger, more explosive, and physical training with their repspective National teams.

    Go Warriors, Rainbows, Rainbow Warriors, heck, just go UH MBB give em!!

  15. Thanks, Clyde

    Illness in the Family slowing us down from seeing for ourselves, so Much Appreciate your, Dayton, Brandon and Co. Quick Updates, videos, photos, stats and reports — betcha better than Most US Summer Leagues (other than Big-Bucks NBAD)

    Guards Looking SOLID and a Handful for ANY Opposition — Sheer Numbers And Talent;

    The Young Wings/Small Forwardsʻ Progress — just these few weeksʻ improvement is a good start — looks to build up to a strength — just a matter of how soon? By Mid-Season/Start of Conference Play? Ideally long before the NWC HHypBoost…..

  16. That is, “NWC Hyper–Boost….”

  17. My bad. Dayton’s report will be delayed. I can share with you that Negus Webster-Chan injured his right hand, apparently on a dunk attempt. It was swollen, which I was told is a good sign, and he had it wrapped in ice. Hopefully, nothing serious.

    Aaron Valdes had a monster game, closing the scoring with his fifth dunk — throwing the ball off the backboard, grabbing the carom and jamming it.

    The team has received a transfusion of athleticism since last season with additions of Valdes, Shamburger, Nevels, Smith, Thomas and … though he’ll be redshirting … Webster-Chan. One caveat: it’s just an opinion solely based on summer-league play.

    Now, it’s on the coaching staff to mesh the incoming talent with the returning players. But it’s a good problem to have.

Leave a Response

Login or fill in the fields below to comment. (New user? Register)

Supporters