Rainbows sign point guard
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Hawai'i men's basketball team may have scored its biggest point of the recruiting season yesterday.
Mark Campbell, a 6-foot-4, 180-pound point guard, signed a letter of intent yesterday to play with the Rainbows this coming season.
"I felt really comfortable with everybody in Hawai'i," Campbell said. "And I liked the direction the program was going. They went to the NCAA Tournament last year, which is something I really want to do, and they have so much talent coming back."
Campbell, who played last season at Clackamas Community College (Ore.), may be asked to lead the Hawai'i offense next season.
"He's a consummate point guard," Clackamas coach Cliff Wegner said. "His best basketball is ahead of him, but he could step in right away and play for just about any Division I program."
Campbell averaged 14.2 points and a league-leading 10.2 assists last season at Clackamas. With Campbell in the starting lineup, the Cougars went 26-3 and held the No. 1 ranking in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges, which consists of 33 schools in Oregon and Washington.
He broke a wrist late in the season, and Clackamas went 2-2 and placed sixth in the league playoffs without him. Campbell said the wrist is "pretty much healed" and will not affect his play by the time Hawai'i begins practicing in October.
Wegner said Hawai'i got "a steal" by signing Campbell, who will have two seasons of eligibility at UH.
"He has a gift for seeing the entire floor," Wegner said. "He can shoot, and he can score when he wants to, but he's so unselfish, he makes everybody around him better. If he wanted to, he could score 25 points a game."
Campbell chose Hawai'i over Santa Clara, Portland, Portland State, Drake, Creighton and St. Mary's. He visited O'ahu last week and described it as "just like the movies."
"I couldn't believe how beautiful the ocean was," he said. "And the people were all great."
Campbell is the third recruit to sign with Hawai'i. Last week, the Rainbows signed forwards LucArthur Vebobe and Nkerunem "Tony" Akpan.
The Rainbows closed last season with the combination of Mike McIntyre and Carl English alternating at point guard. Both are eligible to return, but are considered better as shooting guards.
David "Jeep" Hilton and Ricky Terrell, two point guards eligible to return for the Rainbows next season, are rumored to be leaving the program, although coach Riley Wallace said that is not true. Wallace said Hilton and Terrell are still on scholarship at UH, and will be considered Rainbows until they ask to be released, which he said neither has done.
"Nobody promised me anything about starting or anything like that," Campbell said. "But I'm going to work hard for it."
• Ostler an alternate: Former Hawai'i forward Troy Ostler has been selected as an alternate for the NBA Pre-Draft Camp at Chicago in June.
Only the top collegiate players who are considered NBA prospects earn invitations. As an alternate, Ostler is not guaranteed a spot in the camp, but will be invited if other players choose not to attend. Many of the top-ranked prospects are invited but do not attend.
"If he gets in, I think he'll impress people with his (shooting) stroke," Hawai'i coach Riley Wallace said. "He can step out and shoot it as well as any big man."
Anthony Carter was the last Hawai'i player to participate in the camp. He was also an alternate on the initial list in 1998.
The camp runs June 5-8. For four days, the players go through a series of physical tests and full-court scrimmages in preparation for the NBA Draft on June 27.
Ostler, who is 6 feet 10 and 215 pounds, averaged 15.5 points and 5.9 rebounds for the Rainbows last season. In two seasons at UH, he finished with 88 blocked shots, third best in school history.
