Intrasquad scrimmages increase intensity
The Hawaii basketball team continued its progression with another intrasquad scrimmage session on Wednesday afternoon.
Hawaii head coach Gib Arnold brought in Western Athletic Conference referees to officiate the scrimmage.
“It’s great to have the referees out — they’re WAC officials,” Arnold said. “You spend so much time in practice, you’re banging against each other and we’re not calling anything. We want it to be physical. But it’s good to have the referees come in and clean things up so you know what is and what isn’t a foul.”
There were three separate 10-minute scrimmages, and the lineups were shuffled for each scrimmages.
“That will always progress,” Arnold said. “I’m not a big guy on having just a set lineup. I think you earn that every week. My starting lineup will change all year. I like to tell the guys that if you play 40 minutes, play the hardest 40 minutes of your life; if you play four minutes, play the hardest four minutes of your life.”
Perhaps with that in mind, there was an added boost of intensity during the scrimmages.
“Our practices have been pretty intense … and pretty tough,” senior guard Zane Johnson said. “But today was probably the toughest practice we’ve had of the year, and the longest. The intesity was definitely there.”
Among the standouts:
* Junior center Vander Joaquim was virtually unstoppable when he was able to catch the ball in the low post. He was also a defensive presence with several blocked shots.
* Junior forward Joston Thomas had an “on” day, which included some impressive fastbreak dunks. He did, however, receive a reprimand from the referees for complaining about foul calls.
* Sophomore guard Garrett Jefferson is emerging as a defensive stalwart who can cause frustration problems for opposing guards.
* Johnson did not have his best shooting day, but still found ways to contribute with drives to the basket and several assists.
what makes us better this season will be…
maturing of joston thomas
emergence of vander joachim as a true force in the paint
the confidence of bobby miles
zane needs to be insane
how miah fits in if and when he arrives
the new guys getting off the bus will contribute…
shaquille stokes handling the rock and being an outside force as well
hauns brereton’s toughness and relentless pursuit
garret jefferson’s unselfish play when called upon to serve his 6-10 miunutes
the unveiling of davis rozitis(probably the biggest surprise this year)
Looks like a great team so far…
Things are looking up for this team. Let the fo’ real game start already. 🙂
Great job with covering the scrimmages.
How does this year’s team compare with last year’s team?
Dayton – I realize that when you are trying to make a highlight reel, intense, aggressive defense does not make for very good theater, except blocked shots. Nevertheless, while your video shows that this team may have considerable offensive firepower in a variety of different forms, it did not show much defensive intensity on the part of anyone, except on occasion Vander, whom you captured swatting away some shots. Was there a lot of hard nosed defense in this scrimmage that you did not show? Perhaps the guys were tired, as Zane says this scrimmage was at the end the longest and hardest practice so far this year. I hope so, because what I watched on this video showed some good things but certainly did not look very intense.