University of Hawaii basketball team add shooting big

The University of Hawaii basketball team’s recruiting drive starts with a four on the floor.

Harry Rouhliadeff, a 6-foot-9 stretch four from Australia, has pledged to join the Rainbow Warriors basketball team. He will sign on April 13, the first day basketball prospects may put their commitments in writing.

“I had a real liking for the coaching staff,” Rouhliadeff said, “and they took a liking to me. They gravitated me toward school. They really got to know me.”

Rouhliadeff is an accurate outside shooter with a guard’s ball-handling dexterity. Rouhliadeff will enroll in UH this summer. His potential has drawn comparisons to UH co-captain Jerome Desrosiers and former ’Bow Jack Purchase.

In December, Rouhliadeff graduated from Villanova College, a private high school in Coorparoo, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. He is an amateur player with the Southern Districts Spartans of Australia’s National Basketball League 1, a developmental league for the NBL. He also trains with the NBL’s Brisbane Bullets.

“It was really good to learn from top athletes before I head over to college,” Rouhliadeff said. “It will really help me get experience.”

Rouhliadeff said it was his father who encouraged him to play basketball. “My dad took me down to the local basketball center,” he recalled. “At first, I didn’t really like it. Then my friends starting playing, and then I started playing with them, and then I started really liking it. I liked it at a real young age. I started getting into it, and fell in love with it.”

Rouhliadeff developed ball-handling skills as a 5-foot-11 player. Then in 2018, he grew 7 inches, to 6-foot-6. “I had to go out and buy new clothes,” he said. “It was worth it. It was definitely worth it in my book.”

He continued growing and gaining strength, and now weighs 210 pounds on a 6-9 frame. “Those guard skills I was practicing definitely carried over,” he said.

His toughness in the post came from playing Australian rules football; his vertical jump and agility were developed in volleyball matches. He also smoothed his shooting, stretching his range to behind the 3-point arc.

“It took a lot of hard work,” Rouhliadeff said. “I wasn’t always good at shooting. I definitely took the time to get better. It was my technique. With the growth spurt, I had to learn how much power to use. It really sort of took place from there.”

Rouhliadeff said he is fascinated with America’s culture and cuisine. “Americans have a die-hard culture for their sports,” he said. “The foods you have over there, I’m definitely looking forward to it.”