UH basketball team arrives in China

Dongguan, China » Bobby Miles has to direct traffic all the time as a point guard of the Hawaii men’s basketball team.

Combining that ability with some old-school knowledge of video games, he summed up the harrowing task of crossing the street in front of the team’s hotel.

"It was like Frogger," said Miles with a laugh. "People just keep driving."

UH stopped in (relatively) sedate Japan for a night on the way to China, land of 1.3 billion people. The players and coaches were in for a much different experience upon their arrival.

The swarming, elbow-to-elbow sidewalk crowds and the nonstop honking in the streets of Dongguan were quite the first impression for the Rainbow Warriors once they arrived at their first main stop on the "Warriors to Asia" tour on Sunday.

Forward Trevor Wiseman said his first thought was, "We’re not in America anymore."

"The heat and humidity … and the traffic, they just drive," Wiseman explained. "Even if you’re walking in the street, they don’t stop for you. Waaay different back home."

There was the occasional familiar sight. A 7-Eleven here, a Kentucky Fried Chicken there.

The rest?

"It’s intense down here," said strength coach Chris McMillian.

A diverse band of towering players was of equal curiosity to some of the five-million-plus residents of the bustling city, which isn’t among China’s largest. Some of those — Shanghai and Beijing — come later.

But sprawling Dongguan is known as the basketball capital of this hoops-crazed country, making it an ideal first stop for UH coach Gib Arnold and his team. The city is home to the Guangdong Tigers, the dynastic top team of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Some hotel employees were eager for information on their unusual guests. The NBA is extremely popular in China, even after the recent retirement of Chinese hoops icon Yao Ming. The American college game, however, is lesser known.

Arnold is happy to share some of it.

"I love it here. People have been great," Arnold said. "We’ve been busy from the second we landed. But I think these guys are having an absolute phenomenal experience, and it’s only begun."

Junior forward Hauns Brereton wasted little time in reacquainting himself with the land that he spent two years in for his LDS mission. He breathed — or perhaps drank — the humid air like someone making a long-awaited homecoming, though it was an entirely new city for him.

"Right when we got here, me, Davis (7-foot center Rozitis) and Brandyn (assistant coach Akana) headed to the streets and got us some side-shop noodles," said Brereton, a fluent speaker of Mandarin Chinese.

"When we went out, they kept saying, ‘Oh, he’s so tall,’ for Davis, and for Brandyn, ‘Aw, he’s so cute, so handsome.’ "

Rozitis wasn’t taken aback by the crowds or noise. He compared it to being in Moscow, Russia — except Brereton was the one who knew his way around the culture, not him.

"I’m pretty jealous of Hauns," Rozitis said.

As for the food?

"It’s a little better than the cup noodles you can buy at Walmart," the big Latvian said, smiling over his breakfast.