When it came to securing a commitment from Indian Hills Community College guard Roderick Bobbitt, Hawaii had a man on the inside.

Bobbitt played with UH senior Brandon Spearman for the 2011-12 season at the Iowa junior college before Spearman made his way to Manoa for a recently concluded two-year career at UH. The former teammates reconnected over the weekend when Bobbitt took an official visit to the UH campus.

"Yeah, I hung out with him," Bobbitt said. "We had a talk. He really liked it (at UH), so that did help."

Bobbitt gave his oral commitment to the Rainbow Warriors on Monday, choosing UH over other primary suitors Saint Mary’s and Missouri. He visited the SMC campus but did not go to Mizzou, he said.

He can sign a binding national letter of intent as soon as Wednesday, when the spring singing period begins. He has two seasons to use up two years of eligibility.

The 6-foot-3 combo guard, who shared ballhandling duties for the IHCC Warriors as a sophomore, averaged 15.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists for a team that went 34-3 and reached the NJCAA national championship game. He broke his arm in the first game of the NJCAA tournament two weeks ago to end his junior college career, but he’s nearly recovered and is looking to bring his all-around game to Division I.

"I do it on both sides, offensively and defensively," Bobbitt said. "Especially if my offensive game isn’t going the way I want it to, I’m going to get it back on defense. I think I bring offensive and defensive leadership."

Bobbitt, of Oakland, Calif., garnered all-region second-team honors.

"All he wants to do is just win games," said John Wardenburg, who recently was promoted from Indian Hills assistant to head coach after a move by Barret Peery (UH coach Gib Arnold’s cousin) to an assistant job at Arizona State.

Wardenburg, a former assistant at BYU-Hawaii, noted Bobbitt notched three triple-doubles in points, rebounds and assists. "Great hands, defensively has unbelieveable anticipation in the passing lanes. I think Gib and their staff did a fantastic job recruiting what I think is a high-level guard. They’d been on him since the start of the season. Rod has always wanted to play on the West Coast."

He’ll get ample opportunity to do so during Big West play. Bobbitt tweeted about the time difference to the mainland during his visit, but he apparently made his peace with that by the end of the trip.

"I mean, it’s cool. It’s not as far as people think," he said. "The time difference did get me It’s gonna get me for the first couple weeks, but I’ll get used to it."

After playing alongside Spearman his freshman season, Bobbitt redshirted the 2012-13 season.

"He felt like he needed to take some time off," Wardenburg said. "It was good for him in a lot of different ways. Physically, mentally it was good for him."

Bobbitt came back with strong numbers as a sophomore: he shot 47.2 percent from the field, 35.9 percent on 3-pointers and 77.1 percent at the free-throw line. His assist-to-turnover ratio was a respectable 2.4.

"I think he can really get it going on the perimeter from the wings, shooting 3s," Wardenburg said.

"And in transition he does an excellent job of catching and finishing. But, when he has the ball in his hands he has great court vision and can get the ball up. … Rod is comfortable giving the ball up, sharing it. I think that’s why he’s such a good leader."