Warriors have much to be proud of
Ever hear of Jimmer Fredette? The guy who leads the nation in scoring and just led Brigham Young to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament?
Fredette has made 121 3-pointers this season, which ranks third in the nation. He made at least one 3-pointer in every game this season except one.
Against Hawaii, Fredette went 0 for 4 from 3-point range and finished with 16 points – 12 below his average.
The point is, the Warriors had a pretty good defense this season, and that was a main reason why they exceeded expectations under first-year head coach Gib Arnold.
Back in October, Hawaii was predicted to finish last in the Western Athletic Conference. Instead, the Warriors went 19-13 overall, placed fifth in the WAC, and was invited to a postseason tournament for the first time since 2004.
Although the season finished in frustrating fashion in the form of a 77-74 last-minute loss to San Francisco in the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, the Warriors had much to be proud of, including a record-setting defense.
The Warriors set a school record for field goal percentage defense, limiting opponents to a .389 percentage. It was only the second time in program history that a Hawaii team was able to hold opponents below .400 for the season (the previous record was .398 set during the 2006-07 season).
Among other notable achievements of the 2010-11 Warriors:
• Junior guard Zane Johnson set a UH single-season record with 98 3-pointers. The previous mark was 97, set by Michael Kuebler in the 2003-04 season. The UH career record for 3-pointers is 178 set by Predrag Savovic, so Johnson is within range of it for his senior season.
• Johnson led the team in scoring with 15.8 points per game, and was followed closely by senior forward Bill Amis at 15.2. The last time Hawaii had two players finish a season with averages of at least 15.0 points per game was 2001-02 (Predrag Savovic and Carl English).
• Bo Barnes set a UH freshman record with 57 3-pointers. He and Johnson combined for 155 3-pointers, making them the most prolific long-range duo for a single-season in UH history (Savovic and Mike McIntyre combined for 138 during the 2001-02 season).
• Amis finished the season with 49 blocked shots, which was the 10th best total for a season in UH history (and don’t forget he missed 10 games due to a food injury). He finished his Warrior career with 130 blocked shots, which ranks fifth on UH’s all-time list. Amis also finished with 499 rebounds in his career – one short of becoming the 11th player in UH history to grab 500.
• Center Vander Joaquim led the team with 263 rebounds (8.2 per game), which is the ninth-best total for a season in school history. It is also the second-most rebounds grabbed in a season by a UH sophomore (Melton Werts had 343 as a sophomore nearly 40 years ago).
• Miah Ostrowski provided the spark during the second half of the season that put the Warriors on their postseason run. He joined the team in December after finishing the football season, and did not start seeing significant playing time on the basketball court until Jan. 15. In the last 15 games of the season, Ostrowski averaged 7.2 points and 4.9 assists per game, and the Warriors won 10 of those 15 games.
yes indeed. we do have much to be proud of.
this team took a dying program, no wait, a dead program and pumped life back into it.
it took the fans awhile to come see in person.
barring the sophmore jinx, i don’t believe in jinxes, this team will be even more exciting if the new recruits are just half what they are being pumped up to be.
can’t wait till the next game already.
I think Coach Arnold did a remarkable job with this group of players. His energetic style made this team fun to watch. Last place prediction?!? You guys showed them. Now let’s lock up Coach’s contract and look forward to another exciting season.
Standing O to Coach Arnold and his team.:)
The loss still hurts, heartbreaker, missed opportunities, Zane was open on the right side ,inbounds with 6 seconds left should have gone to Zane to dribble down the right side and take the shot ,he was open on the inbound but Trevor passed it to Miah. All and all a great turnaround for our program, looking for bigger and better things to happen next year,thanks to Warrior Insider to giving an inside look to the program. Sad to see Bill and Zane’s Excellent Adventure come to an end. Those were classic moments ,hilarious. Good luck Bill and seniors ,we will miss you all. This program has student athletes that we can all be proud of.
Thanks everyone for visiting the site during this inaugural season for WarriorInsider.com.
Just because the season is over, doesn’t mean that this site is over, too.
We would like to continue to provide coverage and updates during the offseason, including recruiting, workouts and anything else that might involve the Hawaii men’s basketball program.
However, we are in need of funding to keep this site up and running. If anyone out there is interested in donations or sponsorships, please contact me at dayton@warriorinsider.com