University of Hawaii guard Noel Coleman’s winding path leads to spot with Rainbow Warriors basketball team

Noel Coleman’s basketball story did not get straight to the point.

It was a circuitous route to the University of Hawaii’s point-guard rotation for Coleman, who transferred from San Diego the past summer.

Coleman is likely to be in the opening lineup for the Rainbow Warriors’ road game against UC Riverside this Friday to open Big West play. The ’Bows’ league opener was initially scheduled for a week ago, but it was canceled because of contract tracing involving the Cal Poly program.

“Games getting canceled, it was frustrating times,” Coleman said. “Every time we get to go on the court, everybody gets happy. We don’t get to play a lot this year.”

Coleman is familiar with precious and few court time. He was born and reared in Belgium, a country known for its chocolate, waffles and beer. Frieten or frites — french fries — were invented in Belgium. But basketball? The country’s “sports world is very limited, especially for basketball,” Coleman said.

His sister picked up the sport, then his brother and, at their mother’s insistence, Coleman began playing basketball. He is left-handed, but his instincts were to attack to the right. That ambidextrous style confounded defenders — and impressed national-team officials. It also created connections that eventually led to Coleman moving to Kansas to attend Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita for his junior and senior years of high school.

Coleman’s mother grew up in Belgium and his father is from Nigeria. Before moving to Wichita, Coleman spoke mostly Dutch.

“My dad is African, he was speaking broken English,” Coleman said. “I always knew how to speak it and understand English. It wasn’t one of the languages in Belgium.”

But Coleman became fluent in English from watching American movies. “I don’t really use subtitles,” said Coleman, who grew up as a fan of “Adam Sandler and Will Smith movies.”

As a Sunrise Christian senior, Coleman drew strong interest from UH and San Diego. Chris Gerlufsen was a San Diego assistant coach when Coleman signed with the Toreros. But in the past 18 months, three USD assistants departed, including Gerlufsen, who joined the ’Bows in August 2019. After playing in 24 of 32 games during the 2019-20 season, Coleman decided to transfer.

“Chris Gerlufsen was the guy who recruited me to San Diego,” Coleman said. “After he left in the summer (of 2019), it was kind of me on an island, kind of stranded there. My relationship with the head coach wasn’t as close, and it kind of never grew.”

It was an amicable parting, with USD signing off on a waiver that cleared the way for Coleman to play this season without redshirting.

Coleman said he had developed a relationship with Gerlufsen and UH assistant coach John Montgomery. Montgomery was the point recruiter when Coleman played in international tournaments. Another factor in choosing the ’Bows, Coleman said, “I like how Hawaii is the main sport here, the main attraction, if I can put it that way, because they don’t have professional teams here.”

Coleman stayed in Buffalo from the end of March through the middle of the summer, when he moved to Hawaii.

“When I first arrived here, I had to quarantine for a week,” Coleman said. “We had Zoom meetings with the team. I saw them on the screen, but never met them in person until the second week I was here, because that’s when I moved into house I’m living in right now.”

Coleman said he has bonded with teammates and enjoys the friendly competition at the point. Biwali Bayles, JoVon McClanahan and Kameron Ng are true points; Justin Webster, Junior Madut and Beon Riley also can lead the offense. The ’Bows often employ a double-point attack.

“It brings another level of competitiveness in practice — not necessarily for the starting point-guard position, but earning your minutes, earning your role,” Coleman said. “Just interacting with each other on the court and after practice, I love it.”