The itinerary for men’s basketball prospects on their University of Hawaii recruiting trips has historically gone something like this: Stan Sheriff Center, campus, beaches.

And, then, there is the case of Sai Tummala.

His first stop after arriving at the airport last year was a tour of the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kakaako.

“Right off the plane,” Tummala recalls.

He pondered the irony this week while sitting in the JABSOM lobby where, at 6 feet, 6 inches, he starts school Monday as the tallest member of the class of 2020, trading in his No. 12 jersey for a white coat.

Not many schools use a tour of their medical school to entice a basketball player but, then, Tummala was never your everyday recruit, either, arriving at UH after his graduation from Arizona State.

His grade-point averages — 4.0 as a biology undergrad at ASU and 3.9 as a graduate student in earning a certificate in conflict resolution at UH — attest to that. So, too, does the enduring focus and discipline necessary to balance a devotion to academics and athletics.

Which is why Friday night’s awarding of the physician’s white coat, a time-honored tradition marking entry to medical school, is cause for celebration. “It is the first step of a journey that I’ll remember forever,” Tummala said.

Just as he says he will “probably remember, until I’m into my 80s, the sound of the crowd at the Stan Sheriff Center when we were winning games.”

There were times, Tummala will tell you, when he wasn’t sure that the arduous path he had pledged himself to as a high school student in Arizona was truly navigable.

There were moments when roommates would turn up the TV and Tummala would seclude himself in the bathroom or hallway to concentrate on studying. Occasions, too, when he would struggle to keep his eyes open on postgame flights in order to study for the Medical College Admission Test.

And there was the time in January when he flew to Omaha for a medical school interview one day and came back to Manoa to play UC Davis the next.

“I didn’t know if I could do it (athletics and pursuit of medical school) all the time, but I was always going to give it everything I had,” Tummala resolved.

Part of it was the inspiration of following his parents, Padma and Chandram, into medicine.

‘They never pushed me, it was my decision,” Tummala said. “Growing up I had a lot of interest in science and being ’round them seeing my parents and how happy they were doing their jobs and how proud they were of what they were doing, made a difference.”

And while he wanted to prove to himself that it could be done, Tummala also sought to be an example to teammates and aspiring youngsters that playing Division I basketball and pursuing academic goals didn’t have to be mutually exclusive.

“Basketball players, for the most part, they don’t care that much about school,” Tummala said. “I mean, it is emphasized, but it is not part of the culture necessarily. So I wanted to show people that there is something outside of a basketball career that you can pursue and that it is possible to have both.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.