By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
Nerijus Puida is the kind of basketball player who is good at everything, but spectacular at nothing.
The kind of player coaches appreciate and teammates adore, but also the kind opposing players underestimate and casual fans overlook.
It is why his name was nowhere to be found on the list of All-Western Athletic Conference honors on Sunday. It is also why his name is at the top of the list on the All-Riley Wallace team.
"Absolutely one of my all-time favorites," Wallace said. "Not only for what he does as a basketball player, which is a lot, but for everything he is off the court."
Puida is a 6-foot-5 senior forward for the Hawai‘i men’s basketball team, a business major with a 3.8 grade-point average, and a devoted husband. He is a co-captain of the Rainbows, who will take on Texas Christian in the quarterfinals of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament at 10:30 a.m. (HST) on Thursday at Tulsa, Okla.
"He is everything you want in a player," said Wallace, who has been the Hawai‘i coach since 1987. "He may be the most unselfish player I’ve coached."
To be sure, Puida deflects the attention to teammate Troy Ostler when asked about being left off the All-WAC list.
"I knew I wasn’t going to make it," he said. "I just can’t believe Troy didn’t get anything. He has the numbers, I don’t."
Hawai‘i’s best player?
In typical Puida fashion, his statistics are good, not spectacular. Entering the WAC Tournament, Puida ranks third on the team in points (9.3), second in rebounds (5.9), and first in assists (4.7). What goes unrecognized is his importance to the Rainbows’ motion-oriented offense and his role as defensive stopper.
Perhaps more than any other Rainbow, his success on the court reflects in the success of the team.
"He’s a real key" Wallace said. "When he’s stepped up and played well, we’ve won. When he’s had bad games, we’ve had bad games."
Jerry Tarkanian, legendary coach of the WAC regular-season champion Fresno State, said: "Puida might be Hawai‘i’s best player. I know he’s one of the most underrated players in the league."
Dainora Puida, Nerijus’ wife who plays for the Hawai‘i Wahine, may have put it best: "He’s a good passer, and a good rebounder, and he makes his teammates better. But I think he should shoot more. He’s an unselfish player, and he likes that. But sometimes, he needs to be more selfish."
Because of his overall value, Puida has played more minutes (930) than any other player on the team. Yet, he has taken just 193 shots, an average of 7.1 attempts per game. In contrast, leading scorer Predrag Savovic has attempted 369 shots in 885 minutes, an average of 13.7 attempts per game.
"He wants to help the team any way he can," Wallace said. "So he’ll keep passing unless he’s absolutely wide open. I think he needs to look to score more, but he’s also our best passer."
As proof, Puida has 263 assists in his two seasons in Hawai‘i. His average of 4.7 assists per game in his career ranks fifth on the Rainbows’ all-time list. More impressive, he is the only forward on that top 10 list — the other nine were point guards.
Winning is what counts
"I just like smart basketball," said Puida. "If the shot is there for me, I will take it. If the shot is there for somebody else, I will pass it to him."
Mindaugas Burneika, who followed Puida from Lithuania to Weatherford College in Texas, and then to Hawai‘i, said simply: "We would not be a good team without Nerijus."
Off the court, Puida is well-liked and respected. He’s the kind of player who can chastise a teammate for cutting the wrong way during a passing drill, then play a practical joke on that same player afterward. He’s the kind of person who could come to America four years ago with "zero knowledge" of the English language, yet breeze through his college courses.
"You wish all players had that kind of attitude and work ethic," Wallace said.
Puida realizes his importance to the success of the Rainbows this week, yet his maturity and upbringing — he spent the first 20 of his 25 years in a country town of about 100 residents in Sakiu Raj, Lithuania — won’t allow pressure to settle in.
"I get more nervous watching Dainora play," he said. "When I’m playing, basketball is fun for me, especially when we win."
It is why Puida cannot choose one aspect of his game as a strength unless victory is involved. "Scoring, passing, rebounding, defense, I don’t know," he said. "As long as it leads to a win, I’ll do any of it."
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