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Friday, April 7, 2000
Two hoops
recruits visiting
campus today
Head men's basketball coach
By Pat Bigold
Wallace hopes to sign a center
and one more point guard
Star-BulletinWith letter of intent day only a week away, this will be a busy day for University of Hawaii men's basketball coaches.
Two recruits -- a center who could replace Marquette Alexander and a second point guard -- are visiting the Manoa campus. There's no question that the Rainbows are anxious to get commitments from both.
Another prospect -- Mindaugus Burneika, a Lithuanian-born forward from Weatherford Junior College who was named player of the year in the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference -- toured the campus yesterday and was due to leave today.
Center is one of Hawaii's critical scholarship vacancies with the departure of Alexander, who led the Rainbows in scoring through his junior and senior seasons.
One of today's visitors, Dennis Williams, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound sophomore from Skyline Junior College in California, is described by Russ Blake of the Juco Junction recruiting website as an "aggressive" center who can also play power forward.
The San Bruno, Calif. native, who is a boyhood friend of Alexander, averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds for Skyline last season.
Williams has already made a visit to Nevada-Reno.
While Hawaii already has a highly regarded prep point guard verbally committed (David Hilton of The Hyde School in Connecticut), head coach Riley Wallace knows no Division I team goes very far without two solid players at that position.
So he also is hosting Ricky Terrell, a 6-3, 190-pound point guard from Santa Monica College in California.
Terrell, a left-hander, is a scorer (17 points per game), as well as a playmaker (6.5 assists per game).
"He can penetrate and he even pulls down five or six rebounds a game," said his coach, John McMullen.
Terrell was named to the Western State Conference all-conference team and led Santa Monica to a 24-10 record.
The Rainbows are focusing their efforts on signing Terrell and Hilton, and might look no further for a point guard if they can get both.
It appears that Hawaii has backed off on 5-10 point guard Eric Bush of Barton County Junior College in Kansas. Barton, who was listed as a four-star recruit by Juco Junction, must complete his associate degree by summer in order to enter Division I with three years eligibility.
But it seems the Hawaii staff, stinging from the unexpected loss of junior college point guard Roy DelaCruz last summer, does not want to risk waiting for Bush.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
