Sports Column

Hawaii wasn't paradise for Waters

On College Hoops

By jason vondersmith

The Portland Tribune, May 4, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Dominic Waters will ride the winds of change out of the University of Hawaii next week.

But he’ll miss paradise.

“My time was up here,” says Waters, the former Grant High star who plans to enroll in summer school at Portland State and join the Vikings’ basketball team. “I’ve had a tough two years here, and I wanted a change.”

Island fever wasn’t part of his decision to transfer.

“It’s OK, I’ve had my fun times. It’s about 85 degrees today,” he said via telephone from Honolulu on Tuesday. “You get used to it. It’s a great atmosphere and fans. I missed my mom, but I had no problem being away from home. But I was here to play basketball, for business.”

The 6-2 Waters, who plays point guard and shooting guard, says he got “beat up mentally” last season. Waters felt he should have started and played more. Things would not have been fun had he stayed, Waters says, as associate head coach Bob Nash took over the job as head coach. “I didn’t think I could flourish,” he says.

Waters can’t wait to join the Vikings, after playing with many of the PSU players during the past two summers and getting to know the coaches. He must sit out the 2007-08 season because of NCAA transfer rules, but coach Ken Bone will have him on the roster for the following two years.

“I think he can be a really good player – he handles the ball, shoots well, he can pass it and he’s a really good defender,” Bone says. “He’s multidimensional; he played the point at Hawaii.”

Bone adds: “When someone like that shows interest in your program, it’s a no-brainer. We’ve got to have guys like that in our program.”

• The transfer trade winds have been blowing in the offseason.

The Vikings also signed McNary’s Phil Nelson, who left Washington, and PSU point Ryan Sommer departed the program.

Former Jefferson star Mac Hopson left Washington State and landed at Idaho. The 6-2 guard made 45 percent of his 3-pointers with the Cougars.

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