When the University of Hawaii men’s basketball team announced its three spring national letter of intent signees (Dillon Biggs, DeShawn Mitchell and Hauns Brereton) in April, a press release trumpeted the addition of their “scoring prowess, athleticism and … Division I experience.”
Problem is, UH now says only one of the three, Brereton, has managed to get into school.
That means, at best, just half of the original six-man recruiting class will be here when the Rainbow Warriors tip off the 2011-12 schedule.
And, depending on what happens with Gerry Blakes, whose status is undecided, it could be as little as a third.
The loss of so much anticipated “scoring prowess, athleticism and … Division I experience” is one thing. But the seeming ho-hum indifference surrounding the immediate setbacks is another.
You’d think, judging from the reaction, that such a fate has regularly afflicted UH hoops. Fact is, it is hard to recall such letter-of-intent attrition in the past quarter-century.
It isn’t like the admissions office has suddenly thrown up new, much more rigorous barricades for entry, either. In fact, people around UH suggest things have loosened up considerably since the end of former head coach Bob Nash’s tenure.
Back then, UH was under the gun to boost lagging Academic Performance Rate scores and Nash was expected to toe a tougher line on admissions so players who did get in would make grades. Under the APR, an NCAA measuring stick for academic retention, progress and graduation, UH had been assessed a two-scholarship penalty for the 2008-09 season.
Nash took a higher road and it produced two perfect 1,000 APR scores. The result, we’re told, is that his successor, Gib Arnold, isn’t facing an APR squeeze and has been allowed more wiggle room on getting recruits into school. So there is hope for Blakes. Not much time, since the semester begins Monday, but some hope.
But even with that latitude, Mitchell and Biggs apparently weren’t close to gaining admission. Ronnie Stevens also did not qualify, UH has said.
Arnold has maintained that this turn of events is not entirely unforeseen. He says it has been his strategy to build relationships with the players who might not qualify academically, help place them at friendly junior colleges or prep schools and see the ties pay dividends when they do become eligible a year or two down the road.
“I wouldn’t make a very good farmer,” Arnold says. “I plant my crops far ahead.”
People around the game say Tim Floyd used to do something similar when he was at Texas-El Paso, signing 10 players, stashing some, and hoping to net five. Floyd, it will be recalled, was the head coach who brought Arnold to USC as an assistant.
If Arnold’s version works out — and it counts on the players not only becoming eligible but also rejecting other suitors — that would eventually be a bonus for UH. But in the more immediate term, UH must still go about replacing its two most accomplished players, Bill Amis and Hiram Thompson, plus transfer Bo Barnes, for its final run through the Western Athletic Conference this season.
Which is when it could really miss the “scoring prowess, athleticism and…Division I experience” of the players who aren’t here now.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com.
