Of all the character traits humans can be saddled with, perhaps the least harmful is when the best way people can describe you as is "too nice." HPU’s Maruoka loves to
battle the big boys insideBy Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comBut that is what Hawaii Pacific senior Leandro Maruoka believes is the one place he has to improve if he wants to take his game to the next level.
"I hear a lot that the person I am is the person I play as," Maruoka said. "I will have to get meaner, but you shouldn't ruin the love you have for the game by filling your heart with hate."
At 6-foot-8 and 218 pounds, the sleepy Brazilian is built to take a pounding in the paint, as the rest of the conference knows. You would think that in order to bang with the likes of Brigham Young-Hawaii's Scott Salisbury and Pablo Broering, you'd have to build up a little bit of anger, a mean streak that turns you into a raging bull at the sight of a red jersey. But you would be wrong, because it is hard to measure what is in a man's heart simply by looking into his eyes.
"If he was mean, who knows?" Hawaii Pacific coach Russell Dung said. "I am not the type of guy who believes he can change people, and as it is he plays hard and is a very good basketball player. He is tough on the court."
Maruoka floats through each game devoid of expression except to acknowledge his small pocket of supporters in the corner of the Blaisdell Arena. He looks like he would rather be anywhere but battling the big boys, but the truth is that there is nowhere he would rather be.
KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii Pacific's Leandro Maruoka, the Brazilian who has been criticized for niceness, is trying to get meaner without "filling his heart with hate."
"My game is inside," Maruoka said. "Everyone tells me I should move out to play the 4 or 3, but I like to be inside. Outside game is not me at all. I love it because it is way more physical. I can push people around."
Although people implore him to get at least a little bit angry on the court, Maruoka was tough enough to pull down 16 rebounds against the best rebounding team in the conference Wednesday and can be counted on for 14 points and seven rebounds each time out -- never falling below that standard but occasionally having everything go right for 28 points, like he did against Chaminade. Even when he is bad, he is good enough.
"Against Hilo he was terrible," Dung said. "He missed layups, missed four free throws, and he never misses free throws. But then I look at the stat sheet and he had 18 points and 10 rebounds."
Part of the reason Maruoka looks so soft is that he is paired with Nate Block, Hawaii Pacific's spark plug in the pivot. When a call went against the Sea Warriors late in Wednesday's overtime loss to the Seasiders -- the third time the team has fallen just short against the No. 19 team in the nation -- Block went after the referee, stomping his feet and pointing to the spot where the questionable infraction occurred. Maruoka simply looked at Block, put his head down and positioned himself where he would be if the call was reversed, as if the bad call wasn't something that would change the course of the game, just something holding it up.
And that is all that matters to Maruoka, that it is just a game. It is hard for him to get mad at something he enjoys so much.
Pride could be a reason, but nobody in the conference has been good enough to make him question his ability.
A lack of attention from international scouts could be another, but Maruoka has been getting his share of looks from them as well.
Maruoka believes that the only thing that could possibly turn the game of basketball into a job is if his team starts losing. As it is now, the Sea Warriors will have to win their seven remaining home games to have a shot at the postseason. That situation is beginning to turn Maruoka's philosophy from "let's play" to "no more Mr. Nice Guy."
The winning becomes more important as Maruoka's career winds down, five years of college boiled down to a few months. Perhaps he doesn't get as fired up about the game because he has so many other things to get fired up about. He is on the Student Advisory Committee and a president's host at Hawaii Pacific and plans on getting his master's degree in sports marketing regardless of whether his professional basketball plans work out or not.
Little did Maruoka's father, Robson, know when he sold his car to send Leandro to the United States as an exchange student in high school that his boy would not return until he got the wanderlust -- sparked by his father's relocating the family as often as a pilot is required to -- out of his system. Brazil is not in Maruoka's professional plans until he is good and ready. It just wouldn't make sense for the man who picked up and committed to HPU without a recruiting visit. He has experienced home, and the world is full of unexplored territory.
Daily weather reports from then-HPU coach Tony Sellitto and the opportunity to see something different were all that Maruoka needed to travel to the middle of the Pacific Ocean the first time. The way to get Maruoka on your side is by telling him what he already knows, not spoiling the adventure.
"I thought, 'Hawaii, they have a school there?' I thought it was all surfing, hula dancing and gorgeous women," Maruoka said. "For 30 days I talked to former coach Tony Sellitto on the phone and all he would tell me was, 'Hey, I saw some Brazilians playing beach volleyball with their feet.' Anything to remind me that it was 80 degrees and gorgeous. I had to see what it was about."
That is why the talk about Maruoka being too soft only brings a nice little grin. Those who think he is too nice to play the game hard are playing right into his hands, because he knows that a boy who moves from Brazil to Missouri and a man who goes from Missouri to Honolulu has to have a certain amount of toughness, the kind that only he can see. And the kind he thinks a third straight loss to BYUH might have brought closer to the surface.
"They always tell me to be more aggressive." Maruoka said. "I try every game but it's not my personality. I am getting better, though, as we get our backs closer to the wall."
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