ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii senior center Christen Roper has progressed each season with the Rainbow Wahine.
The steady progress Christen Roper has made during her Hawaii basketball career is reflected in the number of minutes she averages on the court each game. Roper hooked on Hawaii
By Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comWhile sharing time at the center position with Dainora Puida her freshman year, Roper saw nine minutes of action per game. That increased to 17 as a sophomore, 25 last year and it's almost 33 minutes an outing this season.
Her moves around the basket now are more polished, her footwork has benefited from two summers at Pete Newell's Big Girls camp, there is a soft, accurate hook with either hand in her shot repertoire and she has come close to fouling out only once this season after sitting down early four times a year ago.
Roper has started her senior season strong, increasing her rebounds per game by three over a year ago and is only one made field-goal attempt short (33 of 67) of hitting 50 percent from the floor.
She is goal-orientated, but not in the traditional way.
"I don't sit down and write them out. I know what I want to achieve and try to accomplish it one game at a time, one step at time," said the 6-foot-5 resident of Ojai, Calif.
"My goals have not stayed the same from year to year or from game to game. My goals depend on the type of team we play and the players we play against. If we play a short team, my goal might be to block shots. If we play an athletic team, my goal might be to box out well, get the rebounds and make a good outlet pass. I like to tailor my goals to the situation."
It's no secret Roper is the most prolific shot blocker in Rainbow Wahine history. Entering today's game against Loyola Marymount at 3 p.m., she has rejected 214 opposing shots. Every stuffed shot moves her farther away from Nani Cockett's second-place total of 141.
Roper says there are definite areas where she has improved.
"I've improved on offense to where I get to take more than four shots a game. I've developed a softer touch, but that's ongoing," said Roper who, at times, slammed the ball off the glass from short range earlier in her career. "On defense, the biggest thing is I'm not coming down with my arms and hacking people (and drawing fouls).
The hook shot started to become a useable part of the game last year after Roper heard the same question -- "Where is the hook shot?" -- from UH coach Vince Goo for two seasons.
"I never really took a hook shot before I came here," said Roper, who usually towered above her high school competition. "That's all I did the summer before my sophomore year, work on the hook shot. I wasn't even allowed to dribble. The work finally paid off and I felt comfortable with the hook last year. Now I'm comfortable with either hand and can take a dribble or the drop step to either the middle or the baseline."
Goo said, "Christen's biggest gain basketball-wise is her confidence. She plays with a lot of confidence. She goes into games knowing she can dominate. That's a mind set that has gotten better every year.
"She has made the most strides in basketball. In two other areas, academics and citizenship, she came in and didn't need much help. She is an excellent student and a great person."
Roper chose Hawaii over Denver and several other schools after scrutinizing a tremendous amount of investigative work by her father, Robert.
"I just told Christen to concentrate on school and basketball her senior year and I would take care of gathering all the information on the various schools," said Robert Roper, who created a survey for Christen to fill out whenever she talked to a recruiter.
"He had every kind of question you could think of. I remember when Vince and (former UH assistant) George Wolfe came to the house I had about eight to 10 pages of questions to get answered," said Roper, a secondary-education major with an emphasis on history and a minor in Spanish.
"I knew I wanted to be a teacher, and Hawaii and Denver offered the same academically. Denver's basketball program was just moving into Division I with a pretty new staff, while Vince and George laid out the whole history of how long they have been together. I just thought I would be most comfortable in Hawaii."
Roper found a comfort zone here and says a good game for her is one in which she contributes to the offense and defense and all the little things in between. It has nothing to do with statistics. For the senior tri-captain, it is an emotional feeling.
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