In a series of grueling games and tournaments with the Angolan national team this summer, Vander Joaquim had an epiphany.

Defense gets it done.

All he needs to do now is convey that to his Hawaii basketball teammates, an expected part of his new role as co-captain. Simple, right?

Not exactly. It’s an admittedly unfamiliar role for the Rainbow Warriors junior, whose first language is Portuguese. Be a leader? What do I say, and when do I say it?

That’s what second-year coach Gib Arnold needs his center to figure out over the course of the 2011-12 season, which officially starts tonight at 11 against Cal State Northridge as part of the annual ESPN College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon.

"So far so good," Joaquim said of the job shared last year by seniors Bill Amis, Hiram Thompson and Doug Kurtz. "It’s not easy to be a captain. But so far I’ve been trying to do my best to make sure the guys do everything the right way. It’s been hard; we just started playing. You saw the first game (Friday’s 62-56 exhibition win over Hawaii Pacific), we kind of … it wasn’t like that pretty. But hopefully (today), defensively, we bother them."

UH’s other co-captain and top returning scorer, senior guard Zane Johnson, occasionally does some impromptu translating between Joaquim and the rest of the team.

"I still sometimes can’t understand and give him the head nod," Johnson said. "But (his English) has gotten a lot better. I can make out most of the things he says now."

In a first season in Manoa in which he improved steadily to average 9.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, the 6-foot-10, 245-pound junior college transfer had much to do with UH’s 19-13 finish and appearance in the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

Immediately after the spring semester, the native of Luanda, Angola, was invited to join his countrymen in tournaments from Europe to China to Madagascar.

Sit down with Joaquim for a few minutes about his eventful summer, and the English comes out in a trickle at first. Before long, it flows, especially when it comes to talk of defensive prowess against teams such as China, New Zealand and Australia.

"That’s all that matters," Joaquim said. "We had a lot of good players who could score 20 points every night. But I guess defense is most important. Especially with my size. I just had to play more defense. Block shots, rebound. And if you’re playing good defense, the points will come."

Angola, the six-time defending FIBA Africa champion going back to 1999, was stunned by Tunisia in the championship game in late August. The Tunisians earned Africa’s lone automatic berth to the 2012 Olympics, breaking Angola’s perennial stranglehold.

Joaquim, in his first stint with the team, wasn’t on the floor to prevent it. The youngest Angolan player by far at 21 years, Valdelicio (his real first name) was benched in favor of veterans after new national team coach Michel Gomez was fired in the quarterfinals.

"During the tournament! That was crazy. I’ve never seen that happen," Joaquim said. Gomez, of France, had started national neophyte Joaquim over the older players in several earlier games, something the UH center said contributed to discord with the assistant coaches, all natives of Angola.

He could still watch and learn, and said he valued the experience. Even though it meant hearing about the unexpected loss from Angolan TV and radio, something he said went on for weeks.

"Every game matters," Joaquim said. "If you lose a game, everybody’s going to go against you. It was pretty intense."

He came back to Hawaii in September in peak shape and a more decisive player (somewhat) in the post — Johnson says he’s upgraded from "The African Snail … to a slow lizard" — and can expect to command plenty of double teams this year. Joaquim must deal with that in addition to picking up where Amis left off in both leadership and midrange scoring.

As Joaquim will try to harass Northridge with his height, CSUN (0-1) of the Big West Conference promises to do its utmost to harass Joaquim and UH the length of the floor with multiple defenses. The youthful Matadors — they are the youngest team in Division I basketball with 13 freshmen and sophomores — are known to employ several types of zone and uncommon tactics, such as a box and one.

"You’ve got two big fellas down there who can be pretty dangerous," CSUN coach Bobby Braswell said of Joaquim and 7-foot sophomore Davis Rozitis. "We got a little taste of that the other night against USC (a 66-59 loss). USC had a couple of 7-footers they played at the same time. So we just have to make those guys as uncomfortable as possible."

Freshman guard Stephan Hicks led the Matadors in that game with 19 points and eight rebounds.

After the sloppy exhibition vs. HPU — in which Joaquim had 12 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks — Arnold held two late-night, high-volume closed practices to drive home what he wanted to see in the nationally televised opener. He needs his Angolan center to back him up on it.

"It’s the first time he’s been asked to be a leader, first time he’s been asked to put his neck on the line a little bit, and say, ‘Hey, this is my team, I’d better make sure it gets done the right way,’ " Arnold said. "He’s learning. It’s still not easy for him. … It will make him a much better player and us a much better team."