Waters boosts
UH’s guard stable

The Hawaii basketball team kept its pipeline to the Pacific Northwest flowing with the signing of guard Dominic Waters this week.

Waters, a 6-foot-1 guard from Grant High School in Portland, Ore., sent in a national letter of intent to UH on Monday and will join the Rainbow Warriors' backcourt as a freshman in the fall.

"I can't wait to get back there. I love the town," Waters said last night. "It's like a postcard. It's definitely beautiful out there."

Waters was the Portland Interscholastic League's Player of the Year and averaged 23.4 points per game as a senior. He's the third point guard to sign with UH this spring, joining incoming freshman Hiram Thompson and junior college transfer John Wilder.

"We accomplished our goal of signing two high school guards and we felt like we needed experience so that's why we signed a JUCO guard," UH coach Riley Wallace said.

Waters was hosted by UH center and fellow Portland-area product Chris Botez on his campus visit last week. He played against Botez as a freshman in high school and got some court time with former UH guard Michael Kuebler last summer.

Kuebler was back home in Oregon preparing for the Portland Trail Blazers' mini-camp in July when Waters happened to wander into the gym. After a few games of two-on-two, Kuebler came away impressed with the high schooler's game.

"He's a little undersized, but he's pretty athletic and quick," Kuebler said. "He's got a real good release. He can get a shot off with a hand in his face."

Waters' scoring average jumped 10 points as a senior due to a shift in roles. He averaged 13.4 points playing the point as a junior, but was called upon to be Grant's primary scorer this season and hit for 46 points against nationally-ranked Montrose Christian (Md.).

"I had guys around me who could (score) so I was usually a distributor up until this year when I had to score," said Waters, who picked UH over Boston University and Sacramento State. "I'm a vocal leader, so I like to run teams, give guys the ball and run offenses."

Kuebler earned All-WAC honors in 2004 as a shooting guard and knows the benefit of being versatile in UH's system.

"Especially in this offense, there can be a lot of changing between the (point guard) and (shooting guard), and to have a guy that can play both really helps out a lot," he said.