NWC for 3-union

Splash. Splash. Splash.

Negus Webster-Chan missed the UH hoops alumni game by a couple days, so made up for lost time with an assault on the Stan Sheriff Center nets Monday afternoon.

The former Rainbow Warriors swingman is in town until the end of the month to get a little work in before he joins training camp with the Toronto Raptors’ D-League squad, Raptors 905.

“They asked me to come out to their tryout this year … so I decided to go there and see what it was all about,” Webster-Chan said. “I had a good tryout and made it to the training camp and all that stuff, so I start training camp on Nov. 1.”

Webster-Chan, who redshirted at UH in 2013-14 as a Missouri transfer then played for interim coach Benjy Taylor in 2014-15, said he got into town on Friday but was too weary from travel for the alums game Saturday. He watched Eran Ganot’s UH practice Monday then got up some shots when the team went to lift weights.

“Just to get away from the city, all the distractions over there (in Toronto),” he said of the reason for his latest trip to the islands. “I can get in the gym a lot more out here than back at home. School started and all that stuff; all the gyms are taken up now.”

A quiet stint in Halifax of Canada’s professional league only whet his appetite for what he hopes is coming — a chance to play pro ball near his home city while eyeing a bigger opportunity. Raptors 905 is in its second season as the first Canadian D-League team.

“I’m really excited for the D-League opportunity, because all the NBA GMs’ eyes are on the D-League,” Webster-Chan said. “There’s a lot of good players in the D-League as well, so it’ll better me. I’m just looking forward to getting started with the Raptors 905.”

It’s interesting to think what last year’s 28-6 UH squad would’ve been like with a talent like Webster-Chan, who mostly played out of position in the frontcourt the season before and was known for his 3-point prowess.

He went pro in the offseason a couple months after Ganot got the job. He’d be a senior on this year’s squad now, had he stayed the whole way.

There’s no hard feelings on Ganot’s end. The two talked on the side at Monday’s practice.

Webster-Chan said he closely followed UH’s success in March.

“Oh yeah, definitely. Stef (Jankovic) and Mike (Thomas) and all them were playing,” he said. “I played with them. It was exciting to see them go really far and do great, especially in March Madness. That was really exciting for them, I was happy for them, happy for the coaching staff and the people of Hawaii.”

Meanwhile, his old brother-in-arms from Missouri to Hawaii, Jankovic, is in Los Angeles deciding his future. Jankovic could come to a decision in the next couple days between the Heat’s D-League team, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, or playing in Europe.

It would be something to see Jankovic and Webster-Chan going head-to-head in the 22-team D-League. It’d be a first since their youth club days.

Here’s a 905 video of a Webster-Chan interview after he tried out this summer:

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Meanwhile, in Monday’s practice — the team’s first since the Green & White scrimmage — roles became a little more defined.

Players were locked into wearing either the green or white sides of their reversible practice jerseys for the whole practice — no switching midstream like they had been to this point.

In the past, green jerseys have signified the main rotation guys. Here’s the healthy players who wore green Monday: Matt Owies, Sheriff Drammeh, Larry Lewis Jr., Noah Allen, Gibson Johnson and Jack Purchase.

White jerseys: Brocke Stepteau, Leland Green, Brian Garrett, Zach Buscher, Darryl Matthews, Zigmars Raimo and Ido Flaisher.

Much can (and will likely) still change, of course. Somebody who was wearing white Monday could easily be wearing green Tuesday, and vice versa.