Valdes hits 11 3s, scores 43 in Summer League game
In the absence of current teammates from the University of Hawai’i basketball team, Aaron Valdes took the spotlight at the Hawai’i College Basketball Summer League on Tuesday night.
Valdes made 11 3-pointers and finished with 43 points, 10 rebounds and five assists for Clark Hatch Fitness in the nightcap game at Manoa Valley District Park Gym. His output was not enough, however, as Wealth Strategy Partners defeated Clark Hatch Fitness, 130-125, in an overtime thriller.
“I was just feeling it,” Valdes said. “My teammates were giving me the ball and I was just getting open, so I was feeling it out there and kept shooting. They kept letting me shoot, so why not?”
Valdes made his first 3-pointer in the opening minute of the game, and went 8 for 13 from 3-point range in the first half alone. He cooled off a bit in the second half, but provided some late-game dramatics when he drained a long 3 with around seven seconds remaining in regulation that tied the score at 113 and sent it to overtime.
Valdes played all 45 minutes of the game, mostly because Clark Hatch Fitness had just six players available. UH and Clark Hatch Fitness teammate Isaac Fleming was in attendance but opted not to play.
“That’s the second game in a row I played the whole game,” Valdes said. “I’m just trying to get my cardio in and get ready for the season, be in shape.”
UH junior center Stefan Jovanovic also did not play for Wealth Strategy Partners.
Dean Viena (Saint Louis) led Wealth Strategy Partners with 30 points, followed by 26 from William Broadus (Wai’anae / Western Nebraska), and 24 from former UH standout Julian Sensley.
In addition to Valdes’ 43 points, Clark Hatch Fitness got 32 points from Leon Ballard (Chaminade), 24 from John Avila (Hawai’i Pacific) and 14 from former UH forward Phil Martin.
In the first game of the night, former UH standout forward Bill Amis scored 29 points to lead Chosen Few to an 84-65 victory over Grantco Pacific.
UH redshirt freshman Brocke Stepteau scored one point in limited minutes for Grantco Pacific, which was led in scoring by former UH guard Pi’i Minns (Kamehameha) with 13 points.
Former UH guard/forward Negus Webster-Chan was again in attendance to watch the games. He said he is on vacation in Hawai’i, visiting friends and former teammates. He is in the process of finding a professional team to play for next season.
The Summer League will continue with two more games on Saturday, including undefeated Electricians Hawai’i against Amis and Chosen Few.
(Photos courtesy Brandon Flores / www.brandonfloresphotography.com)
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CLICK HERE for more video coverage of the games
Tuesday’s results
Chosen Few 84, Grantco Pacific 65. Top scorers: CF—Bill Amis 29, Kyle Pape 13, Scott Kato 10. GP—Pi’i Minns 13, Ikaika Phillip 12, Sean Caddell 11, Altrekia Christmas 11, Kaleb Gilmore 10.
Wealth Strategy Partners 130, Clark Hatch Fitness 125 (OT). Top scorers: WSP—Dean Viena 30, William Broadus 26, Julian Sensley 24, Rashaun Broadus 18, Derrick Gordon 14, Desmond Tautofi 14. CHF—Aaron Valdes 43, Leon Ballard 32, John Avila 24, Phil Martin 14, Dayson Watanabe 10.
Saturday’s games
6 p.m. – National Fire Protection Co. vs. Grantco Pacific
7:30 p.m. – Chosen Few vs. Electricians Hawaii
I like Brocke Stepteau, what a High Character, Gib Benjy guy.. for love of Hawaii, and chance to play as preferred walkon, and maybe have Hawaii 2 year residency now.. for the love of the game, working hard.. love those type of guys..
summers? stepteau, ? Dyrbe and Zach,..? One third of team preferred?
Wow..
AV has to get stronger, smarter and still rebound and battle under boards. With NO banger bigs, very thin in frontcourt.. Valdes and MT will have to work the boards.. you have to get the misses from outside, and offensive putbacks, or extend O possession to win games..
First Year toughest, Wish best for Eran.. sure I WISH, in perfect and Fair UH, non political world, IT SHOULD have been Benjy Taylor…I hope soon, in few year or two, he will be back with MBB. UH.. I think,.. he might be, or maybe for now, just work in private sector business world.. he is such a fighter,. HE WILL be successful in Hawaii as business, guy.. maybe even help coach, his sons BB team, or summer camps?
I’m really looking forward to AV’s growth this upcoming season. He’ll definitely lead the team in scoring, but I’m mostly looking forward to his maturation and polishing his all-around game.
Brocke is a UH basketball player. He’s not a Gib or Benjy guy. Let’s try to stop tying everything back to past coaches. If he was a Gib or Benjy guy he would have transferred out since they are no longer coaching. He’s here playing for the University of Hawaii.
Stepteau and Zach are not D1 level skill and size and should play at D2 college so they can play and take advantage of what they have. Nice people and do the right things in life wish them well but time for them to move on.
Way to go AV! If he can hit just 3 to 4 3’s per game next season that would be a huge boost for the team in replacing NWC numbers. As many said before, not much defense or competition in this summer league so can not make too much hype off 11 3’s here.
PONO:
Brocke fantastic guy and family..actually Gib or staff went down to Dallas to check him out, and offered the walkon spot.. Who offered him? Not Eran, it was Gib and staff.. the connection to Gib and Benjy Akana, will forever be there, because they recruited them as walkons or scholie players..
I root for the guys.. that is why Benjy stick around too, he loves his kids, Hawaii living AND he wants to see guys he coached to great, possibly the Best season under hellish conditions, in MBB history.
You cannot refute that.. it is fact, and forever history, Benjy, Gib connection to past 5 years.. and the current returnees , all Gib and staff guys.except, Sai one year and done, Purchase, RS sit out one year, and Canda, all so far, we have to see
Go Bows..and PONO.. I will support the Team , I am anxious to see UH go to NIT or NCAA if NCAA does not come down on UH for lack of institutional control. or worse in court
Jjay I agree with you. I don’t see Zach or Stepteau ever seeing any meaningful time on the court. However, if they want to stick it out and are fine contributing as scout team players then I’m all for it. Summers should definitely be given a shot if he has all his paperwork and grades in order.
Pono, JJay, ditto your comments. If these guys still want to be walk-ons at UH that’s fine, but they will not see any playing time. I think Ganot needs to talk to them about their future and UHs future. To me, if Brooke and Zach want to play they should try D2, D3, or NAIA. Ganot needs to get more quality scout team players to push the starters. I don’t see that right now.
I’m sure these walk ons are great students and good guys. But, this is Division I BB, not intramural.
Derek and Pono agree 100%
Derek, Pono, jj.ay same here 100%
Maybe should not do the beach workouts either. It was the Gib era.
Thus is the Ganot era.
Roderick is here attending summer school, etc. per a poster on another forum.
Its not always about playing…i believe all 4 walkons are happy to be on the team, living in hawaii and getting a decent education
Islandman Bobbit was at Mano gym on Saturday for part of the games.
Rob T; two down, none to go as far as where is such and such.
jjay, Pono, Derek, Congratulations!! I’m so happy you guys are now Division 1 coaches…. What’s the name of the D1 college where you guys coach?? What is the name of the college where you guys played D1 basketball?? Please share the details, so we can all check out your past game film, and check out the D1 teams you are coaching now….Oh, and have you been to any of the team workouts that are supposedly taking place this summer? Didn’t know they were open to the public. Please let us know which workouts you have gone to and when, so some of us can make it to the workouts too…(lol)
It’s so hilarious that you get on this forum to share your unsolicited and unprofessional opinions about players in general without any knowledge about the game, obviously, or about the players personally. You sound ridiculous commenting on the future of players who were red shirts last year, so you didn’t see them play, and who by my count, have only played in a couple of the summer league games, which per Brian McInnis are optional, and by my account pretty meaningless. I don’t know much about the guys, but I do know that none of us on this forum are qualified to judge these players and their futures. In fact, I’m sure no one on this forum really cares about any negative comments about any of the players no matter who they are. This forum should be about supporting the players and the team, not providing useless negative opinions that mean absolutely nothing to the future of the players or the program. You are fooling yourself if you think your opinion matters to anyone on the coaching staff, or that you are influencing any decisions the coaches are making about the team. Try supporting them team as a whole…. Try not pushing any personal agendas, and try using your time for something that is positive and meaningful.
Now, getting to what this article was really about…Happy to see Valdes doing well. He will be a big part of the team’s success this year.
Go Warriors!!
see your point. But it’s all opinions here and hopefully not all kool-aide, we all know the hype pre-season and the ladder taken out from under you. The higher you are the sorer the fall.
Jerry, actually the players Do read this forum, in past addressed we WI fans specifically, answering questions if they were Returning, how were their injuries, etc.
Social Media.
You are correct though.. summer league is summer league, I think smart that Fleming or Bobbitt, or Thomas, going to school and working out with coaches, they sit out games. so slippery at Manoa gym..they are going to get hurt, and Remember the last couple of years? several guys go down, with ankle, wrist, other injuries, actually caused UH MBB team to lose several games.
Nah, WI, thanks to Dayton,.. keep civil, no moniker creators, he let’s us discuss..
And , long time I forgot.. THANKYOU to Dayton, and Valerie Schmidt Ohana, Ameriprise, and Pacific Risk Solutions for letting us discuss, what we all Love UH MBB..
I hope, UH gets it right, with the right coaches and the athletes.. do well and are happy in school and on the court..
That would be a dream.. UH Athletics.. from top to bottom, good teams, good student athletes, and the Right Coaches..
Hey, Benjy was not bad at all.. he will be back as Arnold S. says.
All of Gibs walk-ons are great players, high character, great shooters, rim protectors, 80% from free throw line & 40% from trey. They just love Hawaii, that’s why benjy is still on the island, high character, love the kids, high character, Audi employee of the month, great coach, almost went to the CIT, big west tourney 2nd place, just great guy.
I think the impressive thing about Valdes’ night is that he had the stamina to play a full game, after doing his UH basketball workouts. Neither Jovanovic/Fleming had anything left to play.
I didn’t realize you had to be a D1 coach or player to share your opinions in a forum. If no one gave opinions about the team/players this would be a rather boring forum. Thanks Jerry.
Jerry,
Anyone is entitled to give their opinion on this site. Hence the comments section.
In all honesty, I don’t see what Pono, JJay, and Derek said that was so bad regarding the walk-ons. It’s pretty much known now that Dyrbe just isn’t a D1-caliber player. He’ll be entering his fourth year on the team and has maybe played a total of 12 minutes and maybe scored half as many points. Even though we didn’t get to see Brocke Stepteau and Zachary Buscher play last year, you can’t be surprised by people being skeptical of if they’re worthy of a D-1 basketball team. For one, they weren’t granted scholarships. Secondly, neither have the physique of a D-1 player. Lastly, the fact that Stepteau is struggling in the summer league just shows his skill level.
Note: Although Stepteau scored only 1 in the last game, he scored 17 on July 7 and 13 on July 9th.
http://khon2.com/2015/07/15/basketbows-freshman-stepteau-getting-his-first-game-action-in-manoa/
islandman,
Thank you for sharing that link. I hope just as much as anyone else that Stepteau can contribute to the team. Considering him being a walk-on and 5’9″, I have my doubts. By the way, he’s not 5’9″ and Enos is not 5’10”. I’m 6’1″ and felt like a giant when I walked past them on campus. I’d say Enos is 5’7″ and Stepteau 5’5″ (not counting his 2″ hair).
*Enos 5’8″ and Stepteau 5’6″.
Jerry-
Have you been to any games ? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out if some of the walk ons get minimal playing time. The coaches make the decision of who plays They are at practice everyday. If they aren’t playing its not because they are outstanding players. The cream rises to the top. Get a grip and some back bone.
We want better shooting percentages, our voice has been heard by all of us who made a donation to Coach Eran’s coaches choice Gun 8000 Shooting Machine request. Not saying that this is a miracle machine that solve all of the teams shooting problems, but it should provide the means to work on and improve shooting percentages.
A new offense and this shooting tool can lead to bigger things.
Our walk-ons are fantastic and hope that they will get more opportunity to play. There was a time 2 seasons ago when Dyrbe was getting some playing time (maybe 2 to 4 minutes a game) and provided other players with a well needed rest. I am sure that Eran will find a way to get them some playing time throughout the season.
Go Bows!
Could someone explain what this shooting machine is and does?
Add to previous comment. Will it help our free throw percentage???
This is from the crowdrise.com website:
The Gun 8000 Basketball Shooting Machine: This is the best basketball shooting machine available for dramatically improving a player’s shot. This amazing machine will act as an automatic rebounder, instantly rebounding a made or missed shot and giving a direct return pass for another one. The Gun has a timing device to determine the distance and the speed of the return passes, thus creating situations where players can develop their shooting skills off the move and with game like intensity. The Gun can fire up to 1800 shots per hour and has an optional computerized scoreboard that counts and displays makes, total shots and shooting percentage.
( A picture is shown of the machine, if you click on the arrows on the webpage, looks like it has netting around the basket area to catch the basketballs, etc.)
https://www.crowdrise.com/MensBasketball
anderpops
It’s like a tennis ball machine: check it out. (No need for a dobo to ‘coach’ players.) Instead of staying after practice for an hour for shooting practice, they can now plug it in and go all night !
http://www.shootaway.com/index.php/the-gun-basketball-shooting-machine/the-gun-8000-shooting-machine
Go Bows !!
Per College Basketball Talk, Carl English will be on Canada’s roster for the Pan-American Games. The Men’s competition begins July 21.
Mraloha. Thanks for the update.