Buggs goes out a warrior

Hawaii signee Drew Buggs came ever so close to becoming a state champion with Long Beach Poly High.

The athletic guard had six points, three rebounds and an assist in fouling out in a 48-43 loss (story by Long Beach Press Telegram) to Junipero Serra in the CIF Division II title game on Saturday at the Sacramento Kings’ Sleep Train Arena.

There’s some photos of Buggs in the photo gallery attached to this story by the San Jose Mercury News, and he’s in the main one on this one by the Los Angeles Times. You can see him playing with a knee brace.

It was a challenging yet rewarding season for Buggs, who played through a torn right ACL, among other things, as he embraced a warrior mentality. He’s going in for surgery in the coming days after he meets with a doctor, he told the Star-Advertiser.

Buggs posted this on Twitter after his season came to an end:

Can't believe my High School career has come to an end, I love my school and my team. I'll always be a Jackrabbit pic.twitter.com/TTVZk1tdUF

— Drew Buggs (@_DrizzyDrew_) March 27, 2016

In addition, he sent the Star-Advertiser this message:

“I love this team, these guys are like my brothers and that’s why I chose to play through the injury so that I could finish the season with these guys and win a championship and even though we came up short I am proud of what my team accomplished this season, we overcame a lot of adversity this year and it’s a testament to the depth of our team and our coaching staff.”

He is one of two players signed for 2016 with UH, along with Australian point guard Matt Owies. UH could use some more bodies during the upcoming spring signing period, beginning April 13. Of course, there’s an added layer of difficulty with the NCAA’s penalty of two reduced scholarships and the uncertainty with UH’s junior class — the latter of which could get resolved in the near future, one way or the other.

If all four of the juniors (Stefan Jankovic, Mike Thomas, Stefan Jovanovic, Aaron Valdes) all come back, UH should have two scholarships still to give. That’s with the departures of Roderick Bobbitt, Quincy Smith, Sai Tummala and Dyrbe Enos. Enos was on scholarship this final semester as a reward from Eran Ganot for his hard work. Of course, Isaac Fleming is already gone.

UPDATE: Here’s the Warrior World post on Redondo Union High senior Leland Green, who verbally committed on Sunday.

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2017 recruit Samuta Avea took a visit to campus and met with Ganot with his family this week, per a source. Avea, if you’ll recall, formerly played at Kahuku and transferred to Bingham High in Utah, where he enjoyed a more prominent role as a junior. He’d previously taken an unofficial visit to Manoa last summer.

Earlier this month, Avea helped lead Bingham to the Utah 5A state title. He was named to the all-tournament team, probably in large part to a monster game in the quarterfinals.

Per MaxPreps, in 26 games with Bingham, Avea averaged 10.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.7 blocks and 1.6 steals per game.

Here was an Avea highlight package with Bingham from January:

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Don’t forget about the rally for UH’s two Big West championship hoops teams at campus center on Monday at 12:30.