Posted on: Sunday, April 22, 2001
UH basketball signs Frenchman
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Rainbow collection of international basketball players will now have a French connection.
Luc-Arthur Vebobe, a 6-foot-9 forward who played on France's junior national team last year, signed a letter of intent yesterday to play with the Hawai'i men's basketball team this coming season.
Vebobe, 21, is a French citizen, but has been playing junior college basketball in America for the past two seasons.
"He has an NBA body and he's got NBA potential," said Todd Peterson, Vebobe's coach at Foothill College (Calif.). "He's just a tremendous athlete. I think he's a perfect piece for Hawai'i."
Vebobe averaged 12 points and 4.5 rebounds as a sophomore at Foothill last season. Midway through the season, he was averaging over 18 points and seven rebounds per game, including 42 points and nine rebounds in one game alone. However, he severely sprained his right ankle during a game in late December and was sidelined for the next two months.
"If not for the injury, his numbers would have been what they were at the beginning of the season, if not better," Peterson said.
He returned late in the season, and led Foothill to the quarterfinals of the California Junior College Championship Tournament. According to Peterson, the ankle injury is 90 percent healed, and will not require surgery.
"He could be one of the most skilled players coming out of California (junior colleges) this year," Peterson said. "He's a Scottie Pippen-like player in that he can do so many things and create opportunities for his teammates."
As a starter on the French junior national team last summer, Vebobe averaged 12 points and eight rebounds per game. As a freshman at Seward County College (Kan.) two seasons ago, he averaged 12 points and six rebounds per game. He transferred to Foothill to be closer to friends in California.
Vebobe is 220 pounds – "long-limbed, but muscular," Peterson said – but plays the small forward position. Peterson said Vebobe is primarily a perimeter player on offense, with consistent shooting range out to 22 feet.
Several NCAA Division I teams expressed strong interest in Vebobe, including Oklahoma State, Washington State, Pepperdine, Oregon State and St. Mary's. In the last few weeks, Vebobe narrowed his choices to Hawai'i and Nevada. He visited Hawai'i last week, and Nevada a few weeks before that.
Vebobe is the first recruit to sign with Hawai'i.
The Rainbows lost four seniors from last season's team, which went 17-14 while winning the Western Athletic Conference tournament championship and appearing in the NCAA Championship Tournament.
Nine scholarship players from last year's team are eligible to return. Vebobe would be the seventh foreign player on the roster, joining two from Canada (Carl English and Phil Martin), two from Yugoslavia (Predrag Savovic and Bosko Radovic), one from Lithuania (Mindaugas Burneika) and one from Israel (Haim Shimonovich).
