Good stuff. Brandon Cablay of Konawaena and Vanguard University was also the PBA Finals MVP during his rookie year.

Brandon Cablay is from the Big Island, I believe, and he played professionally in the Philippines. He was the PBA dunk champ.

Lots of neighbor island greats were slept on on O‘ahu. Had some of them gone to ‘Iolani, Punahou, or another legit state title contender then they’d be talked about a lot more. We don’t give enough respect to neighbor island players or coaches.

Bryce, stay off social media. If you have what you have, who cares what people think. You don’t have time to respond to these things. The whole time that all you players are on social media, someone is putting in work. Be that kid!

As for the opinion of kids going to the mainland to get offers, I have personally seen a lot of kids succeed from Hawaii. I have seen a lot in the recent past lie about what they are getting though, and then being forced to tell the truth sooner or later either verbally or by “choosing” to walk on instead of taking a full scholarship to one of the “many” schools that offered them. The mainland offers more competition and there is more availability, but that has nothing to do with how bad a player wants to work.

Derrick Low, Ramsey Williams, Rashaun and William Broadus, Kyle Pape, Kahi Villa (pro baseball and basketball), Brandon Cablay, Dennis Harrison, and many more. So, it can be done.

What is important is to be honest with yourself and play in the division that best fits your game. You have to actually play and not sit. People would rather play zero to three minutes of crap time for a D1 team instead of playing significantly at a lower division. That’s why there are 700 or more names of the D1 transfer list and most of those players are going down a level, where they belonged in the first place. Just my observation over years of coaching on the mainland.

If more Hawaii kids and families went to D2 games in Hawaii, people would see how strong D2 basketball is. We have THREE D2 programs in Hawaii. There’s little chance that a kid that’s good enough to play at any D1 basketball program wouldn’t have an offer from one or all of those schools. If you can’t get the local D2 programs to offer you, then you haven’t done enough (at least locally) to get their attention. Chaminade was a top 25 team last season. HPU went to the NCAA Tournament a couple of years ago. UH Hilo is always just a player or two away from being a contender. I wonder if any of them have shown interest in Forbes. If he can develop, grow, and fill out he’d be a good D2 forward. Sadly, most players are more interested in saying they were on a D1 roster and playing 3 minutes a game than they are interested in playing quality minutes at a solid D2.