Niksha Federico doesn’t play basketball games for Hawaii Pacific University as much as he consumes them, baseline to baseline, opening tip-off to final horn.
He is averaging an iron-man 32.8 minutes per game this season while ranking among the NCAA Division II leaders in scoring (sixth, averaging 24.4 points), rebounds (11th, 11.5) and double-doubles (third, 7).
And there isn’t any slacking on defense either, an area where the 6-foot, 7-inch forward has earned PacWest defensive player of the week honors three times already this season.
“After a game, he’s exhausted,” Sharks coach Darren Vorderbruegge says admiringly.
You get the feeling Federico wouldn’t have it any other way. And if it seems as if Federico is determined to cram the exploits of a full four-year career into one go-for-broke HPU season, well, that is pretty much the situation for the graduate transfer from San Diego State who has helped propel the Sharks to a 7-4 start entering tonight’s game against Academy of Art at Blaisdell Center.
He made the Aztecs’ roster as a hometown freshman walk-on. But he had the unfortunate timing of arriving during a talent-rich period in which San Diego State would embark on an 82-24 run, winning three Mountain West Conference titles and appearing in three NCAA Tournaments, including one Sweet 16 showing.
That left scant court time for somebody who had an accomplished high school career and turned down several D-II and D-III scholarship offers to embrace the challenge of D-I.
Federico longed for playing time but says he does not lament his stay at San Diego State, where he honed his skills and has stayed in contact with former teammates and coaches.
But as the clock on his eligibility was beginning to run out, Federico chose to redshirt last season to continue to work on his game as well as to give himself options, including the ability to transfer as a graduate student without forsaking his senior year.
When Federico went through a list of possibilities, HPU stood out, he said. The only thing was, a total of 30 minutes of game time spread over three seasons didn’t leave much tape with which to advertise his wares to prospective schools.
Vorderbruegge was intrigued enough by the overture to scour three years of Aztecs film for the snippets of Federico and to talk to SDSU coaches.
Still, not every seldom-used D-I transfer becomes a D-II success story. In preseason workouts Vorderbruegge came away hopeful but cautious. “He looked the part (of a D-I player), he is a legitimate 6-7, he’s long and he carries himself with tremendous poise,” Vorderbruegge said. Still, years of coaching, Vorderbruegge said, have made him “a little bit of a pessimist.”
But once he saw Federico in a game, he was everything the Sharks had hoped for — and more. The 18 points against Alaska-Anchorage in the season opener, it turns out, was his lowest output of the season.
Federico humbly says he thought the years and toil he had invested at SDSU would prepare him for success, but an average of 24.4 points a game?
“My roommates for the last two years were on the team and had seen me every day in practice and, it’s kind of funny, they were telling me I was ‘gonna kill it and average about 25 points,’ ” Federico said. “And, I’m like, ‘that’s a lot.’ I thought they were just being good friends.”
What the Sharks have come to appreciate most about Federico is the way he plays. “He plays hard. He sets the tone. When your best player is also your hardest worker it helps elevate everybody,” Vorderbruegge said.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
