Good news, bad news day for UH hoops
The UH men’s basketball team got a big verbal commitment today in Serra High (Calif.) power forward Ronnie Stevens, but got some bad news as well in the MRI results of junior point guard Anthony Salter.
Hawaii coach Gib Arnold said Salter, who felt his left heel pop on Monday, would wear a cast (boot) on his foot for two weeks.
That would take him out of action right up to the season opener against Montana State in the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic on Nov. 12.
The timing is bad for Salter, who was competing for a starting job and minutes in the Rainbows’ backcourt. UH’s other two point guards, senior Hiram Thompson and freshman Bobby Miles, will see all of the minutes at the point in practices.
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I pulled what I wrote on the Star-Advertiser’s breaking news section on Stevens:
Ronnie Stevens, a highly regarded power forward at Serra High School in Gardena, Calif., confirmed tonight he’s given his oral commitment to play basketball at the University of Hawaii for the 2011-12 season.
The 6-foot-9, 225-pound Stevens averaged 12.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 4.9 blocks per game as a junior in helping Serra to the CIF Division III state championship.
Stevens was one of two players to visit Hawaii during the weekend of the UH Ohana Hoopfest. He was sick the night that UH coach Gib Arnold and the UH players performed separate haka dances, but Stevens didn’t take that as a bad omen.
He said Arnold has kept in touch with him throughout high school.
His final decision came down to UH and Cal State Northridge, which he visited last weekend. He said distance wasn’t a factor.
“They (my family) were really excited, my mom was tearing up a little bit,” Stevens said. “They were happy.”
Stevens doesn’t plan on signing a national letter of intent until the spring (late) period.
“I got this little promise, me and my friends have had for a while,” Stevens said. “All of them got recruited by other schools and stuff. We want to all commit at the same time. It’ll be nice to have us all up there signing.”
He wasn’t a featured offensive player in Serra’s title run — he got many of his points on putbacks — but certainly will be this year as the team lost 10 seniors from last season.
Stevens is also an avid volleyball player. Serra coach Dwan Hurt estimated his vertical leap at 35 inches. The right-handed player often goes to the basket strong with his left hand, and can block shots with either.
“He’s very versatile, and I think he’ll be a tremendous asset to the University of Hawaii,” Hurt said. “I’m going to tell you, the University of Hawaii’s going to be very, very happy with Ronnie Stevens. He’s just a great kid, and he’s so mild-mannered. He has a lot of fight in him, that’s why I said his better days are ahead of him. And he has a lot of talent that’s untapped right now.”
Stevens is the second oral commitment gathered this fall by UH. The first was point guard Gerry Blakes of Morningside (Calif.) High.
The Rainbows currently have one scholarship remaining for the 2011-12 season.
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The team scrimmaged today with referees for the second time, and implemented some of the zone offense they’ve worked on this week.
Miles hit the sudden-death game-winning shot, a fadeaway from the left baseline, in the third overtime to win it for the Black squad, 62-60.
Freshman guard Bo Barnes was instrumental in the Black comeback win with four 3-pointers in an abbreviated second half; a few Rainbows were cramping up in the humid Stan Sheriff Center, so Arnold cut the session short.
“There was progress. I think our execution was a little bit better,” Arnold said. “Our man-to-man defense was a little bit better. … Our zone offense looked good, but it was probably because our zone defense looked so bad. But we’ll go half-full on that and say our zone offense looked good.”
I wonder if Charlie Wade would be able to get Stevens to play for his team. probably not since basketball and volleyball seasons happen around the same time.
but I bet Stevens would be an all american in volleyball with that type of vertical and at 6′ 9.
Are we still recruiting Damiene Cain? Did he reschedule his recruiting visit? We have verbals from a point guard and a post player with a senior point, Thompson and two senior posts in Amis and Kurtz, will our final recruit be a post player?
another amazing recruiting effort by the gibber.
salter’s injury is gonna “hurt”. however, it gives bobby miles a chance to see how quickly he can step it up.
Any updates on Janevia Taylor of several years back.
Good catch! Here’s more on Ronnie Stevens:
http://www.calihighsports.com/articles/122
After reading your story today I was wondering the same thing as bowsfan.
Keep up the good work.
The four 3 pointers by that kid doesn’t surprise me. Go to youtube.com & type in Bo Barnes & check his highlight reel on 3 pointers & you’ll see what I mean.
Caine has rescheduled for sometime November. BC was attractive but talks have slowed per other verbals and Colorado has been filling needs also. Word is we are still very much in the hunt, but nothings a guarantee as it is still a long time till it’s final and the ink is dried…
Thought we really had a shot at Stephens but SDSU is an up and coming program also…USU thought he was in the bag too…With Gib and his whole staff as tireless as they have been we will get our share of the top notch mid-major types. Don’t be surprised if we land some high level foreign players also.
My wish….And this is pipe dream, Santa Claus and Tooth fairy wishing, is for us to land a player with the same last name as a tough MMA fighter out of Brazil…I dunno if this is who “Al” refers to occasionally but if that birdy has been sining in his ears let em’ tweet away..
There are two outstanding players from there and a guard who would be pretty incredible, but landing that center who’s expected to be a Kevin Durant type kid would be insanity. Most NBA scouts have the kid as a first rounder at 18 friggin’ years old…
Never say never, I don’t know many programs that have a portuguese speaking coach that also has a great relationship with those kids.
Exciting time to be a warrior baskeball fan indeed.
If Gib and the coaches land Raul Neto or Lucas Nogueira from Brazil, they will officially be the best recruiters ever at the school.
our associate coach is the head coach for both of those brazilian national junior team blue chippers. if he goes to the nba right away, well then, he goes. if not……….
How about an update? Ask Stephen Tsai how to do it. All you need is a little morsel of info. Cmon!
Hey Puhi, I’ve been trying to toss out some kind of update every day. Lately, been posting some Q&A sessions from players taken this preseason.
It’s been a little tougher with closed practices throughout this week, but I’ll have something every day they practice. Thanks for reading.
Oh, do you run the warrior insider site as well? I didn’t know that. kden, Puhi
No, that’s not my site. I was referring to this blog; check back every day for some kind of update.