UH’s Arnold: Joaquim will be back

The future of Vander Joaquim has been the topic of seemingly endless speculation since the Hawaii men’s basketball team closed the 2011-12 season.

Would the 6-foot-10, All-Western Athletic Conference center from Angola return for his senior year? Until recently, it’s been impossible for most people to say with confidence; some interest was said to be out there from pro teams, and Joaquim’s visibility with Team Angola this summer had to be taken into account. Not lost on many fans was the fact that several of Joaquim’s teammates of the past two seasons had left the program for various reasons.

But UH coach Gib Arnold never publicly wavered in his belief that Joaquim would return, and Arnold affirmed that belief again in a phone conversation this week.

“He’s back in Angola now and will be here (UH) at the end of next month,” Arnold said. “He’s visiting family and promised me he’s still keeping in shape and working hard. We talk a couple of times a week.

“He’ll be back in late August, I think he told me around the 18th.”

That would leave more than a month before Joaquim is expected back in town, but UH seems to have cleared one of its biggest hurdles — potential Olympic exposure.

Arnold said he was in touch with Joaquim through the Olympic pre-qualifying tournament in Caracas, Venezuela, last week. The Angolans lost to Russia in the quarterfinals, meaning Joaquim and his countrymen narrowly missed out on participation in the London games.

“He was bummed that they got knocked out; he thought they had a pretty good chance,” Arnold said. “They played some pretty good ball at times.

“They got beat by a pretty good team, Russia, who’s really good.”

Joaquim’s role with the Angolan team was much smaller than his customary starting job at UH. He did not play in one of his team’s three games in Venezuela and played only spot minutes in the other two.

Joaquim averaged 14.3 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks while shooting 56 percent from the field as a junior, making him the central cog in UH’s hopes for success in the upcoming first season of Big West Conference play.