Character weighs heavily into Arnold’s recruiting

Before Marshall Henderson of Ole Miss became the most fascinating and hated basketball player in the SEC, Hawaii fans got an eyeful — and earful — of the Rebel without a pause at the Stan Sheriff Center last December.

"That one’s for you," the wild-eyed sharp shooter barked at the front row after his second 3-pointer in a row early in Mississippi’s 81-66 fifth-place game of the Diamond Head Classic.

This generation’s Chris Herren dropped 23 points and a cheap-shot elbow on Vandy in an SEC tournament semifinal win Saturday.

I wondered if UH coach Gib Arnold had ever tried to recruit him. Three years and three colleges ago Henderson was a freshman at Utah and his roommate was Jace Tavita, who started at point guard for UH this season.

"We did not or would not look at Henderson, way too much baggage," Arnold said in a text from the CIF championships, where he is recruiting.

The comparison to Herren goes beyond scoring talent, on-court hyperactivity and interactive love-to-loathe relationship with opposing fans.

Herren’s off-court problems are well-documented, and the Fresno State star from the 1990s now tours the country sharing his cautionary tale of addiction.

Henderson served 25 days in jail last spring after testing positive for cocaine, marijuana and alcohol. The drug test stemmed from probation related to forgery charges for buying marijuana with counterfeit money in 2009.

A parking ticket won’t keep you from being considered for Rainbow Warrior-worthiness, but character does factor in heavily, Arnold said.

"I really like the group of guys I have now. Great kids, great students. You will only see them in the newspaper for basketball reasons and they want to be here for the right reasons.

"Along the way we have turned down a number of talented players with baggage who wanted to come but we felt didn’t fit. I’m not against giving a guy a second chance, but I really have to do my homework. My first year we took some chances out of necessity because we had such a short time to get a lot of players and the recruiting pool was comprised of guys not heavily recruited that need work, or talented guys with issues."

When I ventured that the perfect recruit would be one with the positive attributes of Henderson and Tavita minus their flaws, Arnold concurred.

"Yes, that’s exactly what I’m looking for. I had one once, his name was DeMar DeRozan."

Back then, Arnold was recruiting to USC, not UH. After a year with the Trojans, DeRozan was picked ninth in the 2009 NBA draft and now averages 17.9 points per game for Toronto.

Getting the next DeMar DeRozan or even the next Anthony Carter to come to Hawaii is an extreme longshot. But Arnold also knows UH needs to upgrade its backcourt to contend in the Big West. Most of us figured that before last season started.

"I believe we need to get more athletic and deeper at the guard position," Arnold said. "I felt this team was built for the WAC, to battle Utah State and New Mexico."

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.