On mornings like Dec. 12, when the temperature dips into the teens and his breath comes out in tiny white puffs, Mike Green often thinks about where he was a year ago. The 6-foot-6 wing for the Capital University men’s basketball team spent last season playing for Chaminade University in sunny Honolulu. Fortunately for the Crusaders, those feelings come and go very quickly. “I definitely miss Hawaii every now and then when it gets cold like this but overall I’m enjoying myself so much being back home in Columbus,” the Dublin Coffman High School graduate says with a chuckle. “I don’t miss it too often.” Green has made his presence felt in his first seven games with the Crusaders. He has averaged 10.9 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists for Capital, 3- 5 overall and 1-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference after losing to John Carroll University 81-67 on Dec. 14. Green scored 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting and had four rebounds while coming off the bench in the loss to the Blue Streaks. Coach Damon Goodwin, the winningest coach in the program’s history, expects the junior to fill the role of being a tall wing for the Crusaders. Capital lost five players, four of them starters, off last year’s team that finished 19-7 overall and 16-2 in the OAC last year. Michael Sommer, a 6-3 wing who averaged 12.8 points and 4.1 rebounds last season, was among the departed. “We’ve had big wings here in the past, so it was nice to have Mike come in and take that (void) for us,” Goodwin says. “There have been some ups and downs as you would expect with any new kid coming into the program. Whether you’re a freshman or a transfer, there’s always a learning curve. Mike is going through that right now.” Capital hasn’t had too many transfers to the men’s basketball program but the ones who have switched schools have made a big impact. Last year Tim Congrove, a Logan Elm graduate who transferred to the program from Walsh University, averaged 8.6 points for the Crusaders and was an honorable mention all-OAC. During the 2008-09 season, Casey Brown, a Bishop Ready graduate and an Ashland University transfer, averaged 8.9 points a game. Green averaged 14.4 points a game and was the team’s leading scorer four times in the first five games, including a 21-point, four-rebound effort in a 92-86 victory over Heidelberg on Dec. 4. However, Green was held scoreless in a 59-58 loss to Baldwin Wallace and limited to three points and seven rebounds in an 87-82 loss to Denison on Dec. 12. “Personally, the Baldwin Wallace game was my poorest performance but we had a decent outing defensively,” Green says. “Games like that make us a little hungrier to get better and better. “I’m definitely experiencing some learning curve with adapting to a new system. I didn’t really play in a similar system before this. I feel like I’m learning more and more each week. Like coach said, it’s been up and down some times. It just takes some patience.” It has taken Green three years to find the right school. He had an outstanding high school career, finishing with 1,025 points and set a school record for 19 rebounds in a game. During his senior year at Coffman, Green averaged 15.9 points, including a 30-point effort in a 78-59 victory over Marion-Franklin in a Division I district championship game. Before his last season of high school started, Green knew exactly where he wanted to go, signing with the University of Akron. Green saw action in four games before being red shirted and transferred to Chaminade. The Hawaiian school made history in 1982 when it shocked Ralph Sampson and No. 1 Virginia 77-72 in the Maui Invitational. Green played in 23 games for the Silverswords, averaging 4.5 points and 1.7 rebounds during a 19-11 season. After the season, Green began talking with his parents, Mark and Lisa Pickering and Mike and Lynda Green, about making another move. “I wanted to study in a video production program that was solid, so I could develop my skills and do something career wise after school was over,” he says. “You never imagine yourself transferring once you start at a college. However coming to Capital it didn’t feel like I was starting all over again. It’s been a seamless transition.” “I think he’s going to have two good years here,” Goodwin added. “Every game we play, he’s going to understand more and more of our system. Once we get to the second half of the season, he’s going to understand things a little more than he does right now.”