Melbourne is rapidly becoming a hoops hotspot for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors.

On Wednesday, point guard Matthew Owies became the first known player to offer an oral commitment to join coach Eran Ganot’s 2016-17 recruiting class. He is the third native of that city in Australia to join Ganot, after Jack Purchase and Jakob Cornelissen were recently added to the 2015-16 roster.

"That’s really exciting," the 6-foot Owies said during a phone interview. "I’ve been in contact with Coach Ganot for a while and the other (assistant) coaches, and it’s just really exciting to build that culture and to be the first one in his 2016 recruiting class. I can’t wait to see who else I’ll be playing with, who else he’ll get in that recruiting class."

Owies said he made his decision a day after returning with his mom from his official visit to the Manoa campus last week. He said he chose UH over Northern Colorado, Arkansas-Little Rock, Northern Iowa and Washington State.

Owies may lack size, but has built a reputation as a crafty, change-of-pace playmaker with some shot-making ability. He’s tried to pattern his game after the likes of small-but-effective point guards like Chris Paul and Steve Nash.

He enjoyed a celebrated junior career in Australia, spending many of his teenage basketball years in the same Melbourne Tigers club as Purchase and Cornelissen.

Perhaps most notably, he was also a starting guard for Australia’s U-17 squad at the 2014 FIBA World Championships in Dubai. The Aussies fell 99-92 to Team USA’s junior squad in the championship game. For that tournament, he averaged 5.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

Owies is on the verge of wrapping up high school at St. Kevin’s College and has latched on with the Dandenong Rangers FIBA squad, competing in the highest level of amateur ball available in his homeland.

"That was a big step up playing against men and I think that’s really prepared me for next year going to college," he said. "I’ll play that next year for half a season and then come over (to UH)."

He can sign a National Letter of Intent as soon as Nov. 11 to make his commitment binding.

"As soon as I can, I’ll sign that National Letter of Intent and just get it all done, so it’s 100 percent that I’m going there," he said.