You would understand if there are moments these days when Randan Berinobis lapses into a daydream every once in a while.
It’s not in the nature of the UH-Hilo graduate with double degrees in Kinesiology and Communications to coast and take it easy, or to let things slide for a day or a week.
But still, he’s at a place after five years of college, four seasons of NCAA Division II basketball, where he has finally been seen by talent scouts and coaches representing teams from all over the planet by virtue of his recent participation in a showcase event in Las Vegas that included only D2 players.
There are a handful of these camps annually in Las Vegas, with the intent of linking players who weren’t actively scouted in college to opportunities with international teams.
“This is a chance for that next level,” Berinobis said of a successful participatory effort, “sort of what you might dream about, being a professional basketball player, but I’m trying not to get too caught up in it, just keep doing what I’ve been doing — work.”
A Big Island native, Berinobis was still an unproven commodity when he showed up for preseason practice out of Hilo High and was eventually redshirted for his freshman season. He had lots of aggressiveness, an appetite for defense and a willingness to jump in a pack of bodies for a rebound.
But he didn’t really know the game, not like he does now, not like he hopes to in the near future.
“I’m in the same place now I was when I got to UHH,” he said, “I’m still trying to improve myself, still trying to get on a team.”
To be fully upfront about it, his odds of landing a contract are long. At 6-foot-3, he was scouted as an off-guard, someone who could take the 3-pointer and also be an aggressive defensive presence. For the Vulcans, he was never relied on as a guy they needed to get 10-15 shots a game, but as he has worked with longtime mentor, friend and UHH assistant Auki Wong, the shot has come around. UHH coach GE Coleman and Wong were not allowed to comment on Berinobis, named a Pure Vulcan in a year end awards and recognition program.
Berinobis was one of 32 players invited to the Las Vegas showcase event. He said he did not know or had ever heard of anyone else there, not another player from the PacWest. They were divided into four teams, each played three games and it all concluded with an “All-Star” game at the end, involving the top 20 players as selected by the scouts and coaches.
He made the “Top 20,” but he’s still a long shot.
For perspective, consider the example of Isaiah Briscoe, cousin of Kyrie Irving and a player who came out of a high school in New Jersey that won back-to-back state championships, with Briscoe averaging 21 points per game as a senior. He was ranked the number 10 player overall by rivals.com in the 2015 class, as well as the number one point guard in his class.
Three years later? Briscoe is coming off a season for Kalev, a professional team in Estonia where was an All-Star. He was signed by Orlando out of the NBA Summer League and will have a chance to make the roster when camps open.
Briscoe had everything Berinobis didn’t have — from a big school in a populous area, a list of national rankings and full ride scholarship at Kentucky, but Briscoe got caught up in a numbers situation for coach John Calipari, was moved to the off guard spot, never found his way at the new position, couldn’t get playing time and left after two years.
Very possible that Brisco could have enrolled at perhaps 50 other top Division I basketball schools and been a focal point. As luck had it, all he had going for him through high school didn’t matter and when he left Kentucky, the NBA wasn’t beating down his door to throw money at him.
So he went to Estonia.
Now, Berinobis, with none of the advantages Briscoe had, might get an opportunity at a team in a place like Estonia. It might be China, Italy, Spain, Turkey, there are leagues in almost every country in the world. From there, anything is possible.
If he gets an offer, and it will take a bit of good fortune and belief in him from people in other countries to thread that needle from Hilo High to professional international basketball.
“He has certainly been seen now,” said James Blackburn, who ran the showcase event and saw all the competition. “But the honest truth is that it’s a waiting game and you have to hope things fall together.
“He played well, he impressed some people, his team won and he showed a good shooting ability for his size. He is a good defender, he has pretty good strength and he showed a high basketball IQ.
“The other side of that,” Blackburn said, “is that he tried out as an off guard and that’s an area with a whole bunch of players, it’s a very, very large pool of talent to choose from.”
So, back home in Hilo, Berinobis waits and continues to train, looking to put up a couple hundred shots every day — you can always be a better shooter — and be there when the phone call comes.
“It would be great,” he said, “but I understand it may not happen, or it may happen at another time. If it doesn’t work out, I have two degrees that I can use to get started on a career here, but in the meantime, it’s about keeping in shape, keep working, trying to be ready.”
The international rosters are beginning to fill, the standard signing stage runs from late June until August. If a player isn’t on a roster somewhere by August, it probably isn’t going to happen.
“There are teams all over the world,” Blackburn said, “and when you look at places like Luxembourg, Belgium — so many places you don’t immediately connect with basketball — you see lots of opportunities.
“Then, when you look at the talent pool, it’s a big ‘Wow,’” he said, “because there are so many more players than there are spots fill on a roster.”
So you wait and hope, but if you’re smart, you always have something to fall back on.
In that respect, Berinobis is doubly smart.
But still ready to play, no matter where the call comes from.
