Extreme makeover for UH basketball

By Fred Guzman

MauiNow.com

New head coach Gib Arnold hasn’t wasted any time in dramatically overhauling the University of of Hawaii’s basketball roster. Arnold has already landed six new recruits, with the most heralded of the bunch – 6-1 point guard Bobby Miles of Workman High in East LA – signing a letter of intent yesterday. Miles average 27 points, 14 rebounds and 5.6 assists last season, earning all-CIF Division IV honors.

Yet another player, 6-8 forward Dominick Brumfield of Big Bend Community College in Washington, is poised to join UH, as Arnold continues his extreme makeover of a team that went 10-20 last season, costing Bob Nash his job. B r u m f i e l d a v e r a g e d more than 1 4 points and 8 rebounds as a JC freshman, sinking 40 three-pointers while making nearly 41 percent of his shots from behind the arc.

F i v e other r e c r u i t s earlier signed with UH: 6-4 guards B o B a r n e s and Jordan Coleman, , 6-10 JC center V a n d e r J o a q u i m , 6-7 JC swingman J o s t e n T h o m a s a n d 6-8 guard T r e v o r W i s e m a n .

H a w a i i h a s a t l e a s t one m o r e s c h o l a r s h i p i t c a n f i l l f o r next season, a l t h o u g h t h a t n u m b e r c o u l d i n c r e a s e p e n d i n g additional r o s t e r m o v e s . The scholarship players eligible to return next season are Bill Amis, Zane Johnson, Douglas Kurtz, Aleksandar Milovic, Hiram Thompson and Dwain Williams.

UH FOOTBALL: With incumbent starting quarterback Bryant Moniz missing from spring drills because of undisclosed “personal reasons,” freshman David Graves appears to be gaining ground on Shane Austin for No. 1 spot on the UH football depth chart going into fall camp.

UH will start most of its home football games at 5:30 p.m. this season. The exception will be the Sept. 2 season opener against USC, which will start at 5 p.m. for a Thursday game that will be shown on ESPN. In 2008, most home games had 6:05 p.m. kickoffs. But in 2009, in a move to allow visiting WAC opponents an opportunity to make late flights after the game and save on travel costs, UH shifted its four conference home games to 5:05.

After approving a record 35 bowl games for next season, the NCAA has approved a new policy that will make 6-6 teams instantly eligible for post-season competition. That only impacts UH in theory, because it is allowed to play 13 games per season. Last year, UH finished with a 6-7 mark and missed out out on a bowl gme for the first time in four years.

The NCAA’s new policy means 70 of the 120 schools playing in Division I-A, will qualify for post-season games after the addition of two new events to the cluttered bowl calendar – the New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium on Dec. 30 and the Dallas Football Classic on New Year’s Day.