It is still a month before he is scheduled to even hit town and more than three months before his next University of Hawaii basketball game, but give Vander Joaquim credit for a significant assist.
The proxy announcement of Joaquim’s intention to return for his senior season is bigger than he can imagine from half a world away in his Luanda, Angola, home.
If you have perused the headlines lately or heard talk ’round the water cooler, you know good news on the athletic front from UH has been in short supply of late.
I mean, when football season tickets went on sale some people were almost giddy.
Between too many DUI football charges, a revolving door in the basketball office and the fallout from the Stevie Wonder concert-that-isn’t, this summer has been a bummer.
Perhaps not since the summer of ’77, when the NCAA penalties had hit and the athletic department was in turnover had things seemed as dark.
So when coach Gib Arnold told the Star-Advertiser’s Brian McInnis the Rainbow Warriors’ center planned to return, it turned a lot of frowns upside down. It gave hope to a place in dire need of a dose.
Never mind that they will need "Hello, my name is …" stickers to introduce Joaquim to his new round of teammates after the offseason shuffle, this is the best news to come out to UH since, well, maybe when Norm Chow said "I do" to the UH football job back in December.
While most of us certainly wished Joaquim success in attempting to help his country reach the Olympics via last week’s trials in Venezuela, there were limits to the benevolence wished upon the 6-foot, 10-inch 245-pounder. Had he been scoring 20 points and pulling down a bushel of rebounds in Caracas, some enterprising pro team from Europe or Africa would have been waiting, contract and pen in hand, and UH would have had another player to replace. Its best one.
Small wonder there have been some anxious months since the season ended and school was out. After questions arose about his return last year, the wonder this time around was multiplied.
As it turned out, however, Angola didn’t qualify, being eliminated in the quarterfinals. And Joaquim, who was used sparingly, has come to understand what Carl English didn’t, that his best career option at this point is to return to UH.
The hope being that Joaquim will build on his average of 14.3 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks from last season and become an even bigger force inside. And, by doing so, both make himself attractive to the pros and take UH places in its Big West Conference debut.
Joaquim’s return sets him up to be perhaps the best big man in the Big West and helps make for a potent Hawaii frontcourt.
And in the immediate term, it means a welcome patch of blue in what have recently been some dark skies over Manoa.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
