Rainbow Warriors double up at point
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
Down one point guard, the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team responded by scoring two.
The Rainbow Warriors found two point guards for this season when they received official letters of intent yesterday from junior college recruits Kris Groce and Deonte Tatum.
Both players made oral commitments last week to attend UH.
"We were lucky to get guys of this quality this late," Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace said. "We went from no point guards to two pretty good ones, so we're OK now."
Wallace said Groce and Tatum will be given equal shots at replacing former starter Logan Lee, who announced last month that he would not return to UH for his junior season.
Groce, who is 5 feet 9 and 150 pounds, will be a sophomore at UH this season. He averaged 21.4 points and 7.2 assists per game at Columbia Basin College (Wash.) last season. He was the most valuable player of the Eastern Division of the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges.
"He can score and do a lot of things offensively," Wallace said. "And he has three years left, so he has time to learn."
Wallace said many teams were recruiting Groce for the 2005-06 season, thinking he would play two seasons at Columbia Basin. However, Groce was academically eligible to leave junior college after his freshman season.
Tatum, who is 6-2 and 175 pounds, will be a junior at UH. He averaged 8.4 points, 4.8 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game at Indian Hills Community College (Iowa) last season.
Several national publications listed Tatum as one of the top 10 point guards in junior college.
"He's very strong; a good team player," Wallace said. "He's supposed to be a good defender, and he came from a winning program, so all that helps."
Several NCAA teams stopped recruiting Tatum because he was not academically eligible after two seasons at Indian Hills. He recently became eligible after completing several summer courses.
"He got his (academic) work done, which is a good sign that he wants to play," Wallace said.
Most basketball recruits were signed by the end of May, but UH associate coach Jackson Wheeler started recruiting Groce and Tatum only after Lee announced his decision. Fall classes at UH begin next week.
"It was a scramble, but we got it done," Wheeler said. "It's usually hard to find one guy at this time of year, but we found two. We went from a losing situation to a gaining situation."
Wallace said he granted Lee an official release from UH. Lee, who is from San Antonio, is seeking to transfer to a school closer to his hometown.
Groce and Tatum will be two of five new recruits on the 2004-05 UH roster. The other three are center Chris Botez, shooting guard Matt Gibson and forward Matt Gipson.
Six players return from last season's 21-12 team: Jeff Blackett, Bobby Nash, Vaidotas Peciukas, Julian Sensley, Jake Sottos and Milos Zivanovic.
Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8101.
