Jace Tavita isn’t even selfish about the selfless stat. "I didn’t know I had 10 assists, wow," the University of Hawaii starting point guard said after UH’s 81-54 victory Sunday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
"I’m just happy we’re winning." he said, a few minutes after.
If there was any pleasant surprise from his game Sunday it was the two bombs Tavita hit in the early going. He made a total of six 3-pointers in 60 games at Utah in three seasons.
With the Utes and in Friday’s season opener the senior was a pass-first, shoot-nearly-never guard. And that could often be his role on this team of complementary and complimentary parts.
"As a wing, I have full trust in Jace," said senior Hauns Brereton. As well he should, since Tavita found the hot-handed Brereton early and often Friday and in key spots again Sunday.
Other than center Vander Joaquim’s knee and the pace of development of freshman Isaac Fotu, the big questions about this team are not about the bigs. They’re about the guys — Tavita, Manroop Clair and Garrett Jefferson — tasked with getting the ball to them.
"We’ll go as far as our guards take us," said assistant coach Brandyn Akana, who works with them. "Slowly, people will see they’re doing what we want them to do."
Tavita, who started 23 games for the Utes, is by far the most experienced, and it shows. So when he took a seat midway through the first half with two fouls and the Golden Lions hanging tough, the true freshman Clair became a focal point.
He had a bit of the deer-in-the-headlights look at first with a couple of tentative passes. But you could see him grow through the tough minutes.
"I feel like I’m getting more confident by the game," said Clair, who had three points, two assists and one turnover in 13 minutes. "If people say (the guards are) not so good they don’t understand it’s about the team, the chemistry, we have that matters. That will take us higher."
It’s just two games in, and the opposition gets tougher after tonight’s nationally televised game against Houston Baptist. But what Arnold has been promoting as a team of guys that truly enjoys playing with each other has shown to be exactly that this weekend.
"We call it team-manship," Arnold said. "I don’t even know if that’s a word, but it is in Australia."
Which is interesting in itself, considering the roar from the bench that went up when walk-on Michael Harper — the program’s first player from Down Under — made a basket in garbage time.
The big men are unselfish, too. Maybe sometimes to the point of being too much so. After Friday’s game, Arnold described Fotu as a "pass-first power forward," and Christian Standhardinger was able to laugh about an errant drop-off pass he threw instead of taking an open shot.
Those things can be cured, and often the inside passing is a thing of beauty, almost as pretty as Tavita’s alley-oops on opening night, when he had nine assists.
Yes, it is very early. And the turnovers (Tavita had six of the team’s 17 on Sunday) have to come down. But we’re already seeing glimpses where everyone fills their lanes and their roles to perfection.
"Limit (turnovers), then you have a team that can put people away," Akana said.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.
