The Hawaii basketball team should have something to show for the spring signing period, which ends today.
Yuba (Calif.) College point guard Jaaron Stallworth took an official visit to the Manoa campus on Monday and Tuesday, and was expected to sign a binding agreement by today with the Rainbow Warriors for the 2017-18 season.
The 6-foot-1 Stallworth is rehabbing a broken leg that cut short his freshman season at Yuba but is on track to play next season. He saw action in 13 of 31 games for the 28-3 49ers, averaging 13.8 points and 3.2 assists per game. He has three years of eligibility remaining; he didn’t need to complete an associates degree to transfer to Division I because he is an academic qualifier.
Before getting hurt, he showcased athleticism at his position while also shooting 40.7 percent on 3-pointers.
“He was having an awesome season,” Yuba coach Doug Cornelius said. “His numbers don’t put up the whole story. … He was the MVP of one tournament we were in, an all-tourney selection in another tournament. We were 14-1 when he went down; the kid was having a ridiculous year. He was getting recruited by Pac-12 schools before he got hurt, Oregon and Utah. I was hearing from everybody. He’s a heck of a player.”
Besides frequent references of UH on his Twitter account the last few months, Stallworth previously mentioned offers from Division II schools, most recently Chico State.
“After he broke his leg, everybody kind of backed off,” Cornelius said. “Everybody figured, ‘oh, he’ll be back at Yuba the next year’ to recruit him. Hawaii, I give them all the credit in the world, they hung in there thinking they might be able to get him out and get him for the three (years). They did. They’re going to get him.”
He added Stallworth is coming along well in his rehab.
UH carried four available scholarships into the signing period that began April 12.
Official visits to UH by four players during recent weeks — Colin Russell (UC Davis), Rylan Bergersen (BYU), Edon Maxhuni (Long Beach State) and Myles Johnson (Rutgers) — resulted in them ending up with other teams.
Another player UH brought in for an official visit, former Gonzaga guard Bryan Alberts, has yet to announce a decision between UH, LBSU and Weber State.
Players may still be added after the signing period until the start of the fall semester through non-binding scholarship agreements.
UH coach Eran Ganot desires to assemble a full roster by July 3 for summer school and workouts.
