Didn’t this guy just score 30 points for a team that won for the ninth time in 11 games this season?
Roderick Bobbitt looked like a resident of Whoville wondering where Christmas had gone — or a member of a college basketball team recently put on the NCAA’s naughty list, which is actually true.
But that had nothing to do with anything Friday. Dour is Bobbitt’s default expression. Inside, he’s overjoyed.
The Hawaii point guard even briefly cracked what looked maybe like a smile in the late stages of Hawaii’s 79-67 win against Auburn for third place in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
“He’s got that stoic personality, and it’s consistent,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “Sometimes you’d like your point guard to be a little emotional, but it’s important for every player to be who he is.”
No one will ever mistake Bobbitt for a vocal leader. But that doesn’t mean his teammates don’t follow him.
“You pick your spots. When he says something they listen,” Ganot said. “Rather than ranting and raving, he gives the team belief when he looks in their eyes.”
For the second game in a row, the normally pass-first Bobbitt took the scoring lead. On Wednesday, he notched a career-high 32 in the tournament semifinal loss to No. 3-ranked Oklahoma, followed by 30 (on an efficient 13 shots from the floor, as Ganot noted) against the Tigers.
His 6-for-7 from 3-point range included an ice-cold dagger to give UH a 7-point lead with 69 seconds left.
“He’s already crept into my top 10 (of all-time Hawaii players), based on this tournament alone,” said Rainbows TV analyst David Hallums, himself a former UH guard. “He came correct tonight. I’d put him top five, but I don’t want to disrespect Bob Nash and some of the others.”
Another Hawaii guard turned analyst, Artie Wilson, goes back even farther than Hallums and also said Bobbitt stacks up well in Rainbows history — especially defensively.
“He’s a leader on the court,” Wilson said of the nation’s leader in steals last season. “Probably one of the best off-ball defenders at the guard position ever at the university. He’s great at anticipating, at seeing plays two or three passes in advance.
“He’s developed into a pretty good 3-point shooter. Without him they go 0-and-3 in this tournament.”
Bobbitt’s back-to-back treys gave Hawaii a 37-32 lead early in the second half.
But, spurred by Horace Spencer’s block and rebound on an alley-oop to Mike Thomas — one of the best defensive plays anyone in the arena had ever seen — Auburn went on a run and led 60-51 with less than 10 minutes left.
Then Hawaii launched the decisive haymaker, as Ganot likes to call scoring runs. Sai Tummala’s 4-point play off a Bobbitt assist started it, and Bobbitt’s free throws helped ice the game. UH scored the final eight points.
Through all of it, Bobbitt maintained the same poker face. He enjoys basketball, but it’s all business.
“Yeah, I’m just always playing hard, playing to win,” he said. “You can say I’m serious. When I step on the court I don’t think there’s anything funny going on.”
The Auburn Tigers are the latest opponents who also fail to see anything to smile about.
