The New Year will mark a fresh start for the Brigham Young-Hawai'i men's basketball team.

The Seasiders played the first month of their schedule without their top player, but get National Preseason Player of the Year Lucas Alves back in time for Saturday's showdown against Chapman (Calif.).

The game will be played at BYUH's Cannon Activities Center in Lā'ie at 7:30 p.m.

"Lucas is such a good player that obviously it will have a tremendous impact on our team," said BYUH coach Ken Wagner. "He just makes everyone better."

BYUH went 6-2 without Alves, including a 4-0 start. Its only losses came at Seattle Pacific (78-72) on Dec. 5 and at Chaminade (87-81) on Dec. 12.

"We're not happy. We felt that we could be better than that, but at the same time we're progressing," Wagner said. "The (PacWest) season is what really counts, so hopefully we can continue to get stronger as the season goes on."

Alves, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound senior forward/center, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a partial tear of the lateral meniscus in his right knee while playing for the Brazilian National Team in the summer.

"I never had an injury like that before, but I knew it was something serious because I felt my knee all twisted, but I had no idea what it was," said Alves, a native of Casa Branca, Brazil.

Alves underwent surgery on the knee July 23 and began rehab in Brazil, before returning to Lā'ie for the fall semester.

"It was hard for me to be away from basketball — something that I love — for five months," Alves said. "But, it did give me some time to focus on other things in my life and taught me to be a little more patient with myself."

Wagner said he will bring Alves along slowly.

"He actually hasn't been going live yet, he just got cleared by the doctors yesterday, so he's taking it easy and we'd like him to come around slowly, but he looks really good in practice," Wagner said.

Alves has earned first-team All-PacWest distinction in each of his first three seasons. He was named PacWest Freshman of the Year and was named conference Player of the Year the past two seasons. As a junior, he averaged 19.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game en route to National Player of the Year honors from Daktronics.

"It's a great award, I'm honored to win any award, but I try to use it to keep me pushing harder," Alves said. "I was pretty upset at the beginning -of the year that I couldn't be out there with the guys, but we have a lot of talent on our team and if we come together as a team, we can be pretty good."

In his absence this season, the Seasiders have teamed up to pick up the slack. Five players are averaging in double figures with sophomore guard Tsung-Hsien "Jet" Chang leading the way with 20.8 points per game.

However, Chang — last year's PacWest Freshman of the Year — broke a bone in his left arm Dec. 11 against Hawai'i Pacific. Wagner said Chang is expected to redshirt.

"He's missed the last three games and it's hard because we obviously will miss his 20-something points each night, but I think the other players will pick it up and play better," Wagner said.

Senior guard Virgil "JR" Buensuceso averages just over 16 points per game while junior swingman Rory Patterson and sophomore guard Anthony "AJ" Reilly average more than 12 points apiece. Junior guard Marques Whippy averages more than 11 points and eight rebounds each time out.

NOTES

BYUH was ranked 18th in last week's National Association of Basketball Coaches Division II poll. ... Hawai'i Pacific forward Genesis Lewis has been named PacWest Conference Player of the Week, the league announced yesterday. Lewis, a 6-foot senior from Paramount, Calif., had 14 points and 11 rebounds in a 70-35 win over UH-Hilo on Dec. 21.