Rising to the challenge

If to err is human, to air is Aaron. Hawaii basketball redshirt freshman Aaron Valdes didn’t have the loftiest of starts to preseason practices with the Rainbow Warriors. Though amazingly athletic — he’s blessed with a 40-inch-plus vertical leap — the 6-foot-5 small forward hadn’t been applying himself properly in the eyes of coach Gib Arnold.

"I felt the first week of practice he was playing like he was a redshirt still," the UH coach said. "He wasn’t playing to make an impact now, and he was playing a little soft. So yeah, I challenged him. I think the exact thing I said was, ‘You might as well go put the Speedo back on, because you need to start playing like a basketball player.’ "

That would be a reference to Valdes’ background as a water polo standout at La Serna High in Whittier, Calif. Though he excelled at both sports, he was more decorated in the pool than on the court, earning All-America honors his senior year.

Arnold’s challenge was jarring for Valdes, who was a late addition to the roster last year coming out of La Jolla Prep Academy and wasn’t depended on for much, save practicing against the UH first team for the entire season. He could play carefree and focus on getting tip dunks over unfortunate teammates.

If Valdes needed a reminder the stakes were now higher, there it was.

"It was definitely a wake-up call," Valdes said. "Any time Coach yells at me, it’s a wake-up call for me to play harder. I know I wasn’t playing hard at that time. I just had to step up my game and go out there 100 percent instead."

Both parties agree that early October practice was a turning point. Good thing, because preparation for game action took on greater importance than anyone anticipated when senior guard Brandon Spearman went down with an ankle injury on the tipoff of a Halloween exhibition against Brigham Young-Hawaii.

It fell on Valdes to fill in for the captain that night and for the next few weeks. He started the first three games of the season, scoring nine, two and six points.

Spearman returned in UH’s loss to Missouri in Kansas City on Nov. 16, meaning Valdes was back to a bench role (and played only three minutes), but the Green & White Scrimmage slam dunk champion was back to his high-flying ways with his best game against Hawaii Hilo last Thursday. Valdes soared to 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting, including a few of his crowd-pleasing crams.

"I thought it was good for him to kind of be thrown in that fire," Arnold said of Valdes’ starts to start his career. "He didn’t have a chance to worry and all those things. He just had to go out there and play, and I thought he did an excellent job.

"And it was actually good for me, too, because I was forced to play him, where maybe (Valdes) as a freshman, I might baby him along a little bit and make sure he knew everything. But I was forced to play him, which was good for me, because he had to play through mistakes."

Through five games, Valdes is averaging 6.6 points on 50 percent shooting with 3.6 rebounds in 16.8 minutes. He’ll continue his recent bench sparkplug role when the ‘Bows (3-2) host New Orleans (1-2) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Stan Sheriff Center, the first of two games sandwiching Thanksgiving.

Valdes worked extensively on his shooting and dribbling in the offseason with the goal of becoming more than just a dunker. It helped him to MVP honors in the College Summer League — though he hasn’t yet looked comfortable shooting 3s (1-for-6) this season.

Nothing, though, gets "Air Cuba" (his Twitter handle) going like an emphatic throwdown.

"I want to make people happy here and give them something they’ve never seen before," said Valdes, who is half Cuban, a quarter black and a quarter Mexican. "I just want to be out there with the team, winning games. It’s not about the dunks or anything; it’s about winning for us. But if I get the crowd excited while playing, then it’s OK with me."

Valdes is content with basketball, though he sometimes misses water polo, a sport UH does not offer in men’s athletics. He nearly ended up following his older brother Andrew, his water polo inspiration, collegiately in that sport. But discussions with his family — especially with his father, Andy, who helped coach him — and others convinced him his best future as a pro athlete was in basketball.

The walk-on’s goal is to earn a scholarship by next season through his play and by keeping his grades up — an admitted weakness in his prep days that narrowed his choices. Arnold said Valdes has held up on that end with close to a 3.0 GPA thus far.

"He’s in a great situation," Arnold said. "He’s ahead of schedule to graduate, more than any other freshman (we have). He’s going to be a real big impact on this team and this university in the next four years."

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