2 new recruiting names

The Twitterverse revealed two new recruiting prospects for the Hawaii men’s basketball team over the last 24 hours.

The first is Newark Memorial High (Bay Area, Calif.) senior point guard Joey Frenchwood. The 6-foot-1 Frenchwood picked up his first Division I offer on Sunday from Hawaii, he said in a phone interview Tuesday. He said he plans to take a visit to the islands before deciding — but UH’s odds seem good here, as his other interest is from Montana State.

“I’m liking Hawaii a real lot right now. … It feels really good (getting that first offer),” Frenchwood said. “I know I want to take a visit for sure. If I like it a lot, I’m sure I might commit. (I want to visit) as soon as possible, honestly.”

“(My approach is) whatever I need to do to win. I can score, I can facilitate. I’m a pretty good defender, I’d like to say. Whatever my team needs me to do to win, I’ll do it.

“It was a good year. It was a little up and down. We started off strong, then we had a drought where we dropped seven games straight. Then we picked it up, ended up winning 20 straight and going to the (open division) state tournament. We lost in the first round. But it was a real good year. I was happy how we ended.

Here’s a YouTube montage for Frenchwood.

The other player is Dallas Jesuit High senior point guard Brocke Stepteau, who said Tuesday he’s taken a preferred walk-on spot to play for UH in 2014-15 and will arrive in July.

“It feels really good. I’ve been wanting to make a decision for a while. … I’ve been talking to Coach Gib for a little bit and yesterday (Monday) I just let him know I wanted to be a part of the UH program. I’m going to be coming out July 7.”

He helped Dallas Jesuit win its district in Texas’ 5A ball, but his team lost in the first round of the playoffs. More recently, he’s played for the Dream Elite Unsigned Seniors, with whom he averaged 15 points and seven assists.

“I work really hard to get better in every aspect of the game. I like to get my teammates involved as a point guard, and I can also shoot really well from the outside,” he said. “I think I can score very well and defend for my position very well.”

The 5-foot-10, 160-pound Stepteau’s other options were Florida Atlantic, St. Peter’s and Houston Baptist, he said. He’s looking to put on 10 points of muscle once he gets here.

“Definitely the distance is pretty far, but I’m going to enjoy it and I can’t wait to get out there,” said Stepteau, who was on Maui last summer for a vacation. “It’ll probably take a little bit to get used to, but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem at all.”

Here’s a YouTube montage for Stepteau. and a pretty crazy buzzer beater he made.

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In case anyone is wondering if Stepteau’s arrival will prevent Tyler Harville from following up on his decision to walk on at UH, Harvillle said Tuesday he still plans to be here in July for summer school.

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If anyone’s wondering what became of Vander Joaquim, here’s a story about Joaquim’s optimism to expand his role with the Angolan national team this summer. He had very brief looks with two NBA summer league squads last year and latched on with a pro team in his native Angola.