Smith ready to go

Brace for the return of Jamie Smith.

Smith is finally ready to begin in his role as performance analyst with the Hawaii men’s basketball team. He said Wednesday that his first official day of work at UH is Thursday. (No, he won’t be with the team for the CSUN game in California).

His job combines the duties of a director of basketball operations with those of a video coordinator. And of course, he’ll be working to galvanize the UH student section for the four remaining home games.

It takes about two full days for him to fly from his native England to Hawaii, with a couple of stops on the U.S mainland in between. He was in transit on Wednesday.

It could be interesting to see how responsibilities are redistributed at this late phase of the season.

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As for the hubbub about the alleged marijuana smoke and reported $500 clean-up charge in two rooms at the team’s Riverside hotel, no public punishment has been handed out to any players. All rotation players are expected to be available for the CSUN game (Brandon Jawato remains out with back spasms).

Benjy Taylor has some comments on the matter in Thursday’s preview story for the game against the Matadors.

The morning UH left for the mainland, Taylor decreed that until further notice, players are off limits to the media. It remains to be seen if that policy applies for these road games.

Freshman Isaac Fleming missed the team flight to Los Angeles on Tuesday, but that was because he was ill. He made a separate flight with assistant coach Brad Autry on Wednesday.