Sets of Teammates Join Vulcan’s Basketball

For the third week of condi­tioning, UH Hilo's men's bas­ketball team looks great. Though the Vulcan's only have five re­turning seniors, there are numer­ous amounts of new players that plan to make positive contribu­tions this season. The Vulcans will have to find a way to work the new players into their system.

Conditioning is the first step in creating chemistry and finding fa­miliarity with the changing faces in the locker room. There are two sets of former teammates who will be making their Vulcan debuts, which should make becoming cohesive slightly easier than previous years.

The Vulcans picked up two city college transfers in guard CJ Brown and forward Kiel Myers. Brown and Myers played together for two seasons at Sacramento City College. Brown is seeking to fill the vacant starting point guard position left by two-year starter Andrew Gipson. The team is expecting big things out of Kiel Myers this year. While at Sacramento City Col­lege, he averaged almost 17 points and seven rebounds per outing.

Another set of teammates comes to Hilo from Ventura College in Paul Batausa and Michael Melo­nas. Batausa is looking to chal­lenge Brown for the starting point, while Melonas plans to bulk up the Vulcan's frontcourt. Stand­ing six-foot-seven, he will add some much needed muscle and size to the team. His 64% field goal percentage at Ventura shows that he can also be adequate on the offensive end of the court.

The Vuls players are looking to gel into a single unit come the start of the season. Building this chemistry takes time, but the Vul­cans seem to be right on track.