The Hawaii men’s basketball coaching staff is nearly whole again.

Senque Carey, a former assistant coach at Loyola Marymount and Fresno State, has been hired as Gib Arnold’s third assistant, filling the position vacated by Scott Fisher in late May.

Carey is known for his abilities to recruit and develop talent at his past stops. At Fresno State, he received credit for the growth of future NBA All-Star Paul George and future NBA big man Greg Smith. At UH, he will have the title of recruiting coordinator and work with the team’s point guards, responsibilities that previously belonged to UH’s other assistants, Benjy Taylor and Brandyn Akana.

The 34-year-old said he signed his contract with UH on Tuesday and was to board a plane from Los Angeles to Atlanta overnight to begin actively recruiting for the Rainbow Warriors.

"If that’s not hitting the ground running, I don’t know what is," Carey said.

Carey was a first-year assistant with LMU last season. When coach Max Good was fired after the season, Good’s staff was jettisoned as well. But Carey didn’t have to wait long for a job; he was familiar with Arnold through mutual contacts from eight years on the recruiting trail.

"Unfortunately, it’s a business," Carey said. "Looking forward to working with the (UH) staff and the administration. I mean, I had a couple options, but I wanted to go to a program that was on the rise. I felt really comfortable with the staff. I knew of Benjy Taylor a lot, just because he’s known on the trails as a hard worker, a grinder. Always in the right spots. And so, from there I was just excited about the opportunity to work with a good program. I say we can win a title."

Only the Rainbows’ director of basketball operations position remains vacant. The former holder of that post, Chris McMillian, took an assistant position at the College of Southern Idaho.

While there’s been no word on the ops position, Carey had been rumored as the replacement for Fisher for weeks.

"Thrilled to have Senque Carey join our staff. He has a great reputation as a recruiter and his ability to develop point guards," Arnold said in a message. "I have known Senque a long time and even recruited him a bit back in the day. I have been impressed by his work as an assistant coach. He recruited Paul George and Greg Smith, two NBA players, to Fresno. He has a great work ethic and major recruiting ties around the country. He will be relentless in his recruiting and his dedication to the University of Hawaii. We are very fortunate to have him join our staff."

"Coach Q," as Carey is nicknamed, went to Washington out of high school in Palo Alto, Calif. Despite a Pac-10 All-Freshman honor at UW, the point guard transferred to New Mexico a season later. There, adversity struck — a paralysis-causing spinal cord injury early in the 2002-03 season ended his career on the floor.

His NBA dream over, Carey turned to coaching. He served a stint as undergraduate assistant with the Lobos, latched on as a full assistant for a year at Portland State and parlayed that into a spot on Steve Cleveland’s staff at Fresno from 2005 to 2010, when he was recruiting coordinator and was responsible for helping rebrand the Bulldogs’ poor APR image.

Carey was asked if he’d be able to contribute to UH’s 2014 recruiting class with little more than a month before the fall semester begins.

"Recruiting never stops. It’s a 24-hour deal, 365 days," Carey said. "If you ever stop, then that’s when you’re going to be out of the game of recruiting college basketball. It’s the competition. That’s exactly what it is. Yes, to answer your question, yes, there’s always players out there, and there’s always opportunities for players if you know you have a scholarship."