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Australian pipeline opens with two on UH roster

From the day he was announced as the new head coach of the University of Hawai’i basketball team, Eran Ganot talked about establishing a pipeline of players from Australia.

The construction of the pipeline has apparently started, as the 2015-16 roster will include two players from Down Under: Jack Purchase and Jakob Cornelissen.

Screen shot 2015-08-29 at 9.19.31 PM

Purchase, a 6-foot-8 forward, is a known newcomer. His transfer to UH from Auburn was announced in June.

Cornelissen, a 6-3 freshman guard, is a new addition who arrived on the UH campus last week without much fanfare.

Screen shot 2015-08-29 at 9.19.57 PM

“There were a few other (schools) but Hawai’i was definitely the best one,” he said of his college choices. “Because it’s Hawai’i. The weather, that’s the one big draw for me … the people are great, very approachable. And the basketball, the Stan Sheriff Center is amazing. All the other ones I was looking at couldn’t compete.”

Interestingly enough, Purchase and Cornelissen played for the same basketball club in Melbourne, Australia – the Melbourne Tigers – although Purchase was always on older teams within the club.

“He was always an age group older than me, so we never played on the same team,” Cornelissen said. “I remember when I was about 16 or so, going to watch the men’s team play and Jack was always there. He was just killing it back then, just absolutely destroying.”

Purchase had similar praise for Cornelissen, saying: “I haven’t had a chance to play with him much, but I tell you what, he can shoot the ball. He’s going to be a good player here at Hawai’i.”

It is helping each to have the other around, especially during the first week of school. “Since we got here last week, we’ve been hanging out every day. It’s much easier to settle in.”

Both players have been participating in preseason workouts, though Purchase will not be eligible to play in games until the 2016-17 season, due to NCAA transfer rules. “Leader of the scout team, that’s me right now,” he said of his role for the upcoming season.

Prior to this season, there had been only one player from Australia to ever suit up for Hawai’i – Michael Harper from 2012-14.

Ganot was an assistant and associate coach at Saint Mary’s College from 2010-15, and the Gaels’ program is renowned for recruiting top talent out of Australia.

Here is a highlight video featuring Cornelissen from last year:

20 Comments

  1. Eran …what? St Mary’s of the pacific..
    I enjoy the run and gun have fun of benjy ball
    Shooters from australia. Good tough guy..nice guy Mick Harper

    I still don’t trust you Eran
    Very deceptive, walked into , or agenda pulled into mbb hc job okole backwards..
    Shame on you

  2. Can’t wait to see them play! I’m glad they chose UH.

    I couldn’t get any of three videos to play on my iPad. It’s probably something off on my side, but thought I’d share in case someone else experiences playback issues.

  3. The kid has a nice shooting stroke will learn to create his own shoot and shoot off the dribble Stop the hating Un Fanzonly. Or is your name Gib jr. ?

  4. Looks like deadly three point shooter with a quick release and pretty much one of those guys that will just camp on the line and run off screens to get open….his only job that we’ve been lacking is to bomb threes

  5. Looks like a good shooter and a good guy.

  6. You convinced me that your love for Hawaii is real!

    All video are movies.

    If you can be as hot as Curry for two consecutive years, King James will Knight you.

    Now to eternity make Paradise your second home!?

  7. UHf1, more serious things – Aloha Tofu went out of business yesterday after 98 years, from 1917.

  8. If he’s a walk on I like the pickup. Looks like a good shooter who needs to develop physically. If he’s a scholie guy I have to question this pickup. Anyone know the scoops?

  9. s/b Honda Tofu went out of business.

  10. When UH admin went for clean sweep, and HOLD on, litigation GA side ready to clean sweep UH and this ncaa mess.. get restitution.. maybe reversal.. that would bring thousands of fans back to UH SSC and interest in this Nightmare again..

    IT WILL HAPPEN.. GA has the ammo, and locked and loaded, aimed at the Agenda people..

    Love the ole boys on the team.. Eran got himself into a mess.. recruiting really skinny Manroop wannabees.. even Mick Harper, Aussie Mum’s boy, tough as nails, and could hit that deep 3 ball shot..did well in Canada.

    They should have OPEN call the coach.. OR Dayton… real time fair interview.. not abusive, however.. fans can ask questions.. who ARE these guys you are bringing in.. is it the flavor of UH recruiting for next few years.. Australian pipeline, the elite , and to develop is great.. what about the local HS BB athletes. and the inner city, or ones of color in usa and around the world the high flyers..the rim rockers. the rocket launchers, or the Carl English’s the Matt Lojeski’s.. You SAY these ARE YOUR boys.. the core.. NOT.

  11. UHF1 is such a bitter person. Go watch reruns of basketball games from last year.

  12. how much Guards do you need? Should’ve tried to get a Big. How was Kentucky able to signing of 7-foot, 245-pound Australian center Isaac Humphries and Physical power forward Tai Wynyard, a 6-foot-9, 255-pound player from Auckland, New Zealand only this month.

  13. Hello ?!
    I can’t find any stats on this new guard. Anyone got anything ?

    Does Coach Ganot have any information ?

    ??

  14. What happen to the nice guy that welcomed new players instead throwing them under the bus. ? Huh ! UH Un Fanz. You use to so nice to the parents of players online etc etc. Now all you spew us is the constant krappola coming from your mindless brain of yours. Your onset dementia clearly shows signs of a guy with a diabolical plan to ruin our athletic dept.

  15. UHf1 – time to change your moniker again (you are DEFINTELY NOT a true UH fan). Agree with Pono & others that you have too much negativity & resentment towards the new UH MBB coaching staff & program. Time for you to take a TIME OUT and take a seat in the corner (until you can offer some constructive – not destructive comments). Granted that you are a senior (I am also a senior fan that goes back to Red Rocha, Harvey Harmon, Lewis Lillie, Sleepy Simon, etc.), but your negative comments are so childish! Grow up or take longer naps!

  16. akuhead2…. here is one year’s stats:

    http://www.foxsportspulse.com/team_info.cgi?action=PSTATS&pID=197823372&client=1-4101-52348-303841-20606867
    ——————————————————————————————————

    Ka Leo says he’s a freshman walk-on.

  17. Thank you for those stats islandman.
    First of all, can’t complain about walkons.

    So, 38% from 3 pt land is not bad, 41% from the field is not bad. But with the video showing him hitting all those shots, it must be that he was getting close to 30 pts per game, but in fact, for that 9 game season, it was just less than 10 pts per game. Not great. But one thing that might be great is that apparantly there are a number of videos that, possibly, he might have edited and put on the web. They have his name on them I think as the publisher. If that is so, his video work might be a great asset for the team.

    Still, at some point, I would like to see some videos of the team at open gym workouts. That would give a sense of how these new players do playing with players we know. And if Jakob has some talent in film editing, maybe WI could reach out. Hope there is no NCAA rule.

  18. This must have been in the works for some time since Jakob is taking classes already. Our news is dated. No chatter. Maybe everyone is focused on football.

  19. If he’s a walkon then I think it’s a good pickup. He has time to physically develop and round out other parts of his game.

  20. At least these new guards have some height, if Jakob is 6-3.

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