RAINBOW WARRIOR BASKETBALL
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
P.J. Owsley, a transfer from Salt Lake Community College, is averaging five points in about 15 minutes a game for Hawaii.
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Comfortable P.J.
The JC transfer is settling nicely into his role as one of the first players off the bench
Being bugged by an unruly roommate wasn't a problem for Hawaii forward Ahmet Gueye during his stay at Salt Lake Community College.
Sharing living space with P.J. Owsley usually takes care of that potential pitfall of dorm life.
"He's so quiet it's ridiculous," said Gueye, Owsley's teammate and roommate at SLCC. "We always try to tease him, try to talk trash to him, but he just keeps quiet."
HAWAII VS. UNLV
When: Today, 7:05 p.m.
Where: Stan Sheriff Center
TV: Pay-per-view, digital Ch. 255; rebroadcast on KFVE at 10 a.m. tomorrow
Radio: KKEA, 1420-AM
Tickets: $3-$26
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Owsley rejoined Gueye by signing with the Rainbow Warriors basketball team and has quietly carved out a role as a steady contributor off the bench in his first season in the program.
The 6-foot-8, 245-pound forward has been one of the first reserves called into action in each of Hawaii's first seven games, playing more than 15 minutes per contest as part of the Rainbows' frontcourt rotation. In that time, he's averaged five points and 3.4 rebounds.
"P.J.'s starting to find his niche in the offense and he's starting to get more comfortable, and that's helped us," said UH associate coach Bob Nash, who works with the Rainbow big men. "The more he plays the
better he's going to get. He's got to learn to work with the weight that he's picked up. He tried to get bigger and stronger, but it slowed him down a little bit."
Owsley (whose full name is Philip Jeffrey) began his college career at Montana State in his hometown of Bozeman, playing in 22 games as a true freshman in the 2003-04 season. But living at home only caused him to grow restless, and he transferred to SLCC, where he was assigned to room with Gueye.
A knee injury forced Owsley to sit out his first year at SLCC, while Gueye -- a year ahead of him in school -- was busy considering his Division I options.
"He was talking about where he was going and he said, 'I think I'm going to Hawaii,' " Owsley recalled. "And I'm like 'Hawaii?' "
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Like other Salt Lake Community College transfers before him, P.J. Owsley has a reliable mid-range jump shot.
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After recovering from his injury, Owsley earned a starting job last year and averaged 11.2 points and five rebounds while shooting 53 percent from the field and leading SLCC with 34 blocked shots.
With Hawaii needing to fill holes in its frontcourt with the departure of three senior forwards off last season's team, Owsley was offered a scholarship by the UH staff and got a strong sales pitch from his former teammate during his recruiting visit.
"I told him, 'Don't even try to go anywhere else; this is where you're going to come, so don't disappoint me,' " said Gueye, now a senior co-captain. "I was kind of stressed about it, so when he told me he signed I was really happy."
Not that Owsley needed a lot of convincing. After a lifetime of snowbound winters, being able to wear shorts in December certainly appealed to him.
"I was saying I wish I could go there, and all of a sudden it happened," he said.
Owsley is the fourth SLCC forward to find his way to UH, following Gueye, Troy Ostler and Jeff Blackett. Like Ostler and Blackett, Owsley arrived on campus equipped with a reliable mid-range jumper and is working on improving his post play as he readjusts to life in the paint at the Division I level.
"I'm just following in their steps, so hopefully I can have the same success they did," Owsley said. "I definitely have to represent Salt Lake and Coach (Norm) Parrish."
Owsley had the best game of his young UH career in the Rainbows' win over Hofstra in the Great Alaska Shootout on Nov. 23, finishing with 10 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes. His layup with 1:21 left gave Hawaii a 73-71 lead. He then dished an assist to Riley Luettgerodt to give the 'Bows some breathing room with less than a minute remaining.
Though he's naturally reserved away from the court, the UH coaches hope Owsley will come out of his shell a bit during games.
"Hopefully, he'll be a little more aggressive defensively and offensively," Nash said. "There's nothing wrong with being a nice guy, but when you step between the lines we'd like for him to be a little more physical."
When he isn't engrossed in practice or his studies, Owsley prefers to keep things mellow around the dorms -- unless, of course, the Xbox 360 he and current roommate Alex Veit share is fired up.
Although the recently released PlayStation 3 system is a tad out of his price range, Owsley is eagerly anticipating picking up his copy of College Hoops 2K7 this week.
"It gets rowdy in our room," said Owsley, who singled out guard Matt Lojeski as the team's top gamer when the 'Bows get together for their video-game showdowns.
"We've got some intense Xbox matchups. It gets loud when we start playing."
Familiar foes:
The Rainbows' rematch with UNLV tonight closes a two-year contract between the schools to play home-and-home nonconference series.
"It's been good for us, I hope Hawaii's felt good about it," said UNLV coach Lon Kruger. "Obviously, it's an extra game on our schedule to come here and that's a positive. And any time you play against a quality program like Hawaii, you feel good about that."
Kruger said there haven't been discussions on extending the series into next season, but Nash, who handles UH's scheduling, said the UH staff is planning to look into continuing the setup.
"We would like to extend it, but obviously it's got to be a partnership and I don't know what their thoughts are. We haven't gone into detail about it," Nash said. "We'll talk, hopefully, about extending the series."
The teams each won on their home court last season, and UNLV opened this season with a 73-59 win over UH in Las Vegas on Nov. 10.
UNLV arrived in town on Sunday in the middle of a stretch of four consecutive road games due to the National Finals Rodeo being held at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.