After weekend of rest, Warriors will be working on D
After a rare, but much-needed, weekend of rest, the Hawaii basketball team got back to work with a Monday practice.
“This week is good because we were able to give them Saturday off after the game and then we had a film session on Sunday,” Hawaii head coach Gib Arnold said. “So we had rested legs for (Monday’s) practice.”
The Warriors earned the weekend off after a 75-70 victory over Pacific last Friday at the Stan Sheriff Center. Hawaii will not play again until Saturday, December 3, when it will travel to Malibu, Calif., for a road game at Pepperdine.
The Warriors will conduct more practices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before departing for the road on Friday morning. Arnold said the emphasis this week will be on defense.
“The last couple of games we took a step back defensively and that’s a key to who we are,” Arnold said. “It’s team defense. We gotta keep guys from driving the paint.”
The Warriors are limiting opponents to a .393 field goal percentage, but are allowing 74.8 points per game.
Garrett Jefferson, who is considered the team’s defensive captain, said: “We struggled with defense a little bit. The other team got in the paint a lot, so we’re focusing on defense this week so we can win by more.”
Hawaii is 2-2 entering its two-game road trip. The Warriors will play at Pepperdine (3-3) on December 3, then a rematch at Pacific (2-3) on December 6.
(Photo courtesy Brandon Flores)
Hopefully both Pepperdine and particularly Pacific are surprised at How Much Tougher Hawai’i’s Defense can be in only a week and a half …
One Extra or Quicker Step on Defense can shut down a Drive, Convert a Blocking Call into a Charge, Result in a Rebound, Force a Turnover & Break, cause More Shot Clock Violations … Win A Game that might have gone the Other Way …
Ohhhh yeah … also… get more and hit more free throws …
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I Still Think Pepperdine should have gone ahead and changed their name to University of Malibu — much Cooler — What is a Pepperdine ?
University of Malibu – Pepperdine would honor both its founder, locatrion and amazing scenery … kinda like University of Honolulu – Chaminade
Yeah, I agree they need to keep teams from driving in the paint. As the team gets more playing time, I’m sure they’ll get it corrected before the WAC season starts.