It appears the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team will have its complete rotation of players available for opening night.

Junior forward Brandon Adams received clearance from UH officials yesterday to participate in games this season.

Adams, a 6-foot-7 junior forward with a 41-inch vertical jump, was originally scheduled to redshirt. He recently changed his mind, but had to go through a paperwork process to become eligible for games.

"I lost a lot of sleepless nights over this," Adams said. "At least I know I can play now. I'm ready."

Adams is expected to be one of the first players off the bench when the Rainbow Warriors open the regular season Friday night at Stan Sheriff Center against San Francisco.

"We were prepared to honor his (original) wishes to redshirt," Hawai'i head coach Bob Nash said. "When he decided he wanted to play, we honored his wishes to play. It's just that we had to make the academic review committee aware of the situation, and they made the final decision."

Adams averaged 13.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per game last season at Diablo Valley College (Calif.), and was the most valuable player of the conference.

He sat out of Hawai'i's exhibition victories over Hawai'i-Hilo and Chaminade last week while awaiting clearance from school officials.

"Talk about antsy," he said. "I was jumping up and down on the bench, wanting to be in there."

Adams did register an assist of sorts in the Chaminade exhibition when he walked across the court during a timeout and found teammate Bill Amis' contact lens.

"Anything to help the team," Adams said.

Fellow junior forward Roderick Flemings also missed the two exhibition games due to a bereavement leave, but he returned to practice this week.

"Having both Rod and Brandon in there obviously makes us more athletic," Nash said.

Also yesterday, sophomore point guard Hiram Thompson also was able to practice for the first time in more than a week. He missed the Chaminade exhibition game with a hamstring injury.

"Hiram feels better, so he got in there," Nash said. "He's got a couple more days to catch up and get ready for Friday."

All the news was not good yesterday.

Starting point guard Kareem Nitoto was on the sidelines for the second half of practice after twisting an ankle. He was able to walk on his own.

"He'll get treatment on it and hopefully be ready to go," Nash said. "I don't see it being too severe. This time of year, guys will get tweaked and bruised. You just hope it's never serious."

The only player who will be out for a while is redshirt freshman Gary Satterwhite Jr. due to a shoulder injury.

"We're getting whole, and that gives us a chance to compete against anyone," Nash said.