The Onyx Boyd Experience at the University of Hawaii at Hilo ended almost before it began.
Almost, because the 6-foot-11 left-handed freshman from Virginia Beach, Va., had enrolled, was on site and ready to go before he was sidelined for an internal disorder. Boyd was sidelined and had not participated in one of the official practice sessions that started last Saturday.
“It’s hard to see him go, but at the same time, you kind of understand, given the circumstances,” said Vulcans’ men’s basketball coach GE Coleman. “He’s a really good kid, he’s a long, long way from home and he was here for two months without being able to even do conditioning or weight work.”
Boyd texted Coleman on Tuesday night, then they talked on the phone and in person.
“Never had a single problem with him,” Coleman said. “He said, a few times, that he had a ton of respect for the program, but you could tell he just wasn’t comfortable being this far from home and not being able to be a part of the team, in the sense of working out and playing hard.”
Boyd had been a national-level recruit as a junior, then he missed most of his senior season and the big schools moved on. In a few minutes here and there before school started, Boyd displayed a smooth presence on the court, seemed to be a good passer from the low post and possessed a text book lefty hook shot that brings smiles to the faces of old school followers of the game.
Soon after he arrived on the Big Island, Boyd had trouble catching his breath when his heart rate went up. Coleman spent eight hours in the emergency room with Boyd one night when the freshman was gasping for breath. Doctors found some fluid around his heart and put him on a medication that was intended to relieve the problem.
Boyd’s appointment to learn results of the medication was scheduled for Oct. 28, but now he will be seeing a doctor back home. Coleman informed the team of Boyd’s departure at Wednesday’s practice.
Boyd was the second recruit for the 2016 season to leave school, following 6-3 wing Donavan Taylor, a junior college transfer who was a credit short of the academic requirement he needed to enroll.
Taylor, who moved in to an apartment in Hilo and had his girlfriend join him, returned to California to get his transcript in order.
UHH is left with three primary post players, redshirt junior Darius Johnson-Wilson, 6-6, healthy after missing all of last season, 6-5 junior transfer Arnold Silva (Santa Rosa JC), and Division I transfer Brain Ishola, (North Dakota State).
