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Sabers Have Height, Athleticism Going Into Six-game Week

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Kristian Manuel reaches for a rebound during a recent practice with the Campbell Sabers. Photo by Byron Lee, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

During his time as head basketball coach at Aiea High School,Wyatt Tau’s teams had a lot of success. What they never had was a lot of size.

“The kids proved at Aiea that size doesn’t matter,” he said.

Even so, Tau can’t help but like his options at Campbell, where he began his first season last week when the Sabers officially opened practice.

“Tall, lanky kids are all I see here,” Tau said. “Now I’m always looking up at these kids when I talk to them. I have guards who are 6-2 and 6-3.”

Tau led Aiea to a pair of OIA Division II titles as well as an appearance in the Division II State Tournament in 2008. He was hired to coach Campbell over the summer after the school decided not to renew Zaricke Jackson’s contract. Jackson led Campbell to a 12-5 record last season, including the school’s fifth straight state tournament appearance.

Tau’s arrival also makes him the fifth coach in five years at Campbell - a fact not lost on the coach - but he sees no time for the customary “transition period” given the demanding preseason schedule which was to open at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday against defending state champion Kamehameha as part of the James Alegre Invitational Tournament at Radford.

“It is a win-win (situation),” he said of the Dec. 8 game. “If we win, it’s a good win against a good team. If we lose, we know what we have to do to get to their level. I told the kids,‘If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.’”

Whether or not size can help remains to be seen, but Tau likes more than his team’s collective height.

“I like our athleticism, and this is a good bunch of kids,” he said.

He will call on seniors Mason Mau, Kristian Manuel, Christian Storment and Clayton Darity to lead the way. All four saw significant minutes last season, with Storment, Darity and Manuel having been in the starting lineup during its two state tournament games last February.

Tau wasn’t revealing his lineup for this week, when the team plays a total of six games in both the Radford and Pete Smith Classic at Kalaheo, noting that there was still much work to do.“Every practice before a game, I’m going to take the top five guys as far as working hard. Starting one game doesn’t mean you’ll start the next game.”

One position that appears settled is the point guard spot, where Kristian Manuel takes over for his brother Zach, who has since completed his eligibility. Kristian was a starting off-guard last season.

“He’s quick - he’s like a combination of (former Aiea standouts) Obie Woods and James Buchanan,” Tau said. “Obie could shoot the ball, and James was good at controlling it. The thing we’re working on now is his decisions. At the same time, we also want him to take his shots, too.”

Darity is 6-foot-4 and will play the three spot. Ironically, he’s a couple of inches taller than Storment, who will play center.

“As I watched Clay last year, he didn’t shoot a lot,“Tau said. “He looked like an extra guy out there at times. We’re asking him to step up and shoot more. From summer to now, this kid can really shoot. He’s taking a lot of shots, and he’s taking good shots.

“What I like about Christian is that he has a nose for the ball - he’s going to get every rebound he can. We want him to dribble less and post up more this year to better his offensive game.”

Mau was an offensive lineman on the football team and will play in the post when in the lineup.“He’s not as tall as some of our other post players, but technique-wise, he might be our best. He knows how to box out, and he goes after the ball.”

In addition to its six games this week, Campbell also will host the 2009 Saber Invitational Dec. 21-23, which will guarantee them three more games. A single preseason game is also scheduled Dec. 19 at home versus Kamehameha II.

Campbell plays Le Jardin Academy in Thursday’s opening round game at the Pete Smith Classic. The Sabers’ opponents for Friday and Saturday will be determined by Thursday’s results. Campbell opens its OIA Red East slate Jan. 2 at home against Kapolei.