Bolstering the ranks

There’s a lot of work still to be done to complete the Hawaii basketball roster for 2016-17, NCAA sanctions or no sanctions.

No doubt, UH’s current reduction in scholarships from 13 to 11 for the next two seasons considerably reduces the flexibility and margin for error Eran Ganot and his assistant coaches have to work with.

UPDATE: UH basketball signed guard Larry Lewis Jr. out of Odessa College today. The breaking write-up is here.

It still behooves the staff to have a full complement of players. A typical college roster has 15, plus or minus a couple. With that in mind, UH recently secured two players from California junior colleges as invited walk-ons.

They are Brian Garrett of Cañada College (that’s Con-YA-da, not Canada) and Darryl Matthews of West Los Angeles College. Both have two years of eligibility remaining.

Garrett, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard, scored 14.9 points on 42.5 percent shooting from the field (35.0 percent on 3s, 73.1 percent free throws) in Cañada’s recently completed season. Matthews, a 6-foot-5 forward, scored 9.9 per game on 46.9 percent shooting from the floor (33.3 percent 3pt, 76.9 percent free throws) while snagging 4.6 rebounds.

A little outdated, but here’s a video of Matthews when he was a senior at St. John Bosco High in 2012:

Both Garrett, of San Carlos, and Matthews, of Los Angeles, are enthusiastic about the opportunity at UH, and are hopeful to prove themselves.

“It’s definitely been a goal that I’ve been working towards for a while now to play basketball at this high level,” Garrett said in a phone interview Thursday. “Kind of through the recruiting process, as soon as the Hawaii thing sort of became an option, I just pursued it pretty hard ’cause, I mean, what a great opportunity to come to such a great state and such a great school, play for a great coaching staff. It’s really just a dream come true, so I’m just really thankful that it happened.”

Assistant coach Chris Acker was the common thread with both players. Garrett said he’d been in contact with both Acker and John Montgomery, while Matthews was actually coached by Acker his freshman year at West LA.

The Acker connection was especially important for Matthews.

“(Acker) is my guy, he’s trained me and molded me to be a better person and player that I am today,” he said in a message. “So when he contacted me about going to UH it was no question that I would be attending there. … Hawaii is one of my favorite places, I’ve vacationed there once as a kid and loved it so what a great option to have. It was one hard to turn down.”

Garrett also visited the islands when he was younger. In 2015-16, he was the leading scorer on a team that went 10-15.

“First and foremost, being a good teammate, being a hard worker is definitely something I hang my hat on,” Garrett said. “But as far as the basketball side, I think my best ability is being a playmaker. Whether that’s setting up my teammates, whether that’s getting a shot for myself. I have a knack for getting to the basket, for finding teammates, for knocking down shots.”

Here were some Garrett highlights from the past season:

Matthews was his team’s fourth-leading scorer. West LA went 11-14 last season.

“I can add my toughness, leadership, and tenaciousness, and my skills,” Matthews said. “My game is a face up game at the high post. I can shoot the three off the bounce and spot up. I can push the ball in transition as well but much rather fun and finish at the rim. I can isolate up top and get a bucket but I know the closer you are at the rim the better the percentage of scoring. Taking high percentage shots are a huge thing for me. Also on the offensive end I enjoy getting others involved and making good passes to my teammates to score. On (defense) I can guard every position. I rebound at a high level and I’m scrappy too.”

These two bring UH’s walk-on count to five, with expected returnees Zach Buscher, Brocke Stepteau and Jakob Cornelissen. UH still has three scholarships to assign.