Scarcity of competition only increases its value.
For the University of Hawaii basketball team, a severely limited nonconference schedule magnifies opportunities — such as Saturday’s game against Hawaii Hilo at SimpliFi Arena — to prepare for the approaching Big West season.
“All these games, we don’t have many; every minute, every second of these live game situations are important for every guy and are important for our team as we come together and we learn each other and learn the right way to play,” UH coach Eran Ganot said.
The Rainbow Warriors’ nonconference schedule was pushed back then effectively wiped out by the pandemic and a new-look roster made its debut last Friday in an 83-50 win over Hawaii Pacific.
They’ll face another in-state rival on Saturday as preparation for a series with Cal Poly, set for Dec. 27 and 28, to open Big West play.
“We’ve done the absolute best that we’ve been able to with the opportunities we’ve been given,” UH forward and co-captain Casdon Jardine said. “It doesn’t really matter who we’re playing at this point, we’ve got to focus on us executing our stuff and us getting good feel for each other and growing that chemistry.”
Jardine was part of the ‘Bows’ new starting five against HPU and hit three 3-pointers and finished with 11 points in his UH debut. After taking a 30-25 lead into halftime, the ‘Bows found their rhythm in a 53-25 second-half explosion.
Forward James Jean-Marie, a transfer from San Diego, led four UH players in double-figures with 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting. Center Mate Colina went 7-for-9 in a 17-point performance and UH shot 67% from the field in the second half.
“It had been nine months since anyone had played a real basketball game,” Jardine said, “but we also have a lot of freshmen, we have a lot of new guys, a lot of different faces coming together for the first time and considering how many new people we have I thought it went OK. It definitely wasn’t a good first half, that’s for sure, but it was OK.”
“Then the second half things started to click, shots started to fall, the ball starts popping, and that’s contagious. When the ball starts to pop around it’s contagious and it’s fun.”
While Saturday’s game counts in the overall record for UH, which is 10-0 against UH Hilo, the meeting will be an exhibition for the Division II Vulcans in the debut of first-year head coach Kaniela Aiona.
Senior post player Sasa Vuksanovic enters the season as UH-Hilo’s top returning scorer after averaging 13.6 points and 6.2 rebounds last season, when the Vulcans went 12-14 and finished sixth in the Pacific West Conference.
“There’s little bit of an unknown there,” Ganot said of facing a Hilo team under new leadership.
“I think that’s a great challenge for our guys to see how we can make adjustments and how we can figure out wrinkles and help each other and communicate together.”
The UH women’s basketball team will also play host to UH Hilo at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Rainbow Wahine opened the season with an 82-74 loss to HPU last Sunday.
