Warriors promote “Nerd Night” on campus
The Hawai’i basketball team is turning into an entertaining product on the court at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Warriors have also become quite the entertainers off the court.
In an effort to promote this Saturday’s home game against Pepperdine, several Warrior players went knocking on dorm rooms to personally invite their fellow students on the UH-Manoa campus to the game.
But it wasn’t that simple. The theme for the student section at Saturday’s game is “Nerd Night” so the Warriors dressed as nerds while walking through the dorms with the invitations. What’s more, they greeted each room with a Christmas carol.
Team video coordinator Jamie Smith, who is in his first season at Hawai’i, is the man behind the season-long campaign to get the students to attend games. He even led a group of Warriors around the dorms, instructing the players on how to grasp the attention of the students.
“Distract them with the singing, give them candy to get their attention, then hand them the flyers and tell them about the game,” Smith said.
One of the team mottos is “All In” and Warrior players Garrett Jefferson, Manroop Clair and Michael Harper were certainly that during one of the dorm-caroling sessions. A fire drill happened to be in progress when that group was walking through the dorms. They took advantage of the situation by singing to the gathered crowd of students and telling them about the game … before security personnel asked them to stop.
GAME INFORMATION
When: Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, 7:00 p.m. HT
Where: Stan Sheriff Center (10,300) – Honolulu, HI
Television: Live statewide on OCSports – Channels 16 (SD) and 1016 (HD).
Streaming Video: Live video streaming is available on ocsports.tv.
Radio: ESPN 1420 AM will carry the game live. Neighbor islands can listen live on KNUI on Maui, KHLO in Hilo, KKON in Kona, and KTOH on Kaua’i.
Audio Webcast: Live audio streaming on espn1420am.com
Live Stats: Live in-game stats are available at HawaiiAthletics.com
Ticket Information: $26 (lower); $18 (upper-adult); $16 (upper-sr. citizen); $5 (upper-youth, ages 4-HS); UH Manoa students free with validated ID. Parking $6.
Promotions: Hawaiian Airlines is the game sponsor and will distribute 300 calendars at Gate A. At halftime, Hawaiian Airlines will award 60,000 Hawaiian Miles and toss t-shirts and mini-volleyballs into the stands. UH Students can sign up to participate in the Hawaiian Airlines Shooters Challenge for their chance to win 80,000 Hawaiian Miles. The student theme is “Nerd Night” as the best geek chic wins a prize. Special $1 ticket rate for the morning sessions of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on December 22 or 23 with the purchase of a UH-Pepperdine ticket. Also, there will be an autograph session following the game.
Lol. These guys are getting good. They’re getting better each time.
Funny stuff! Give credit to the young guys, willing to promote UH Men’s hoops. It will help, at least the dorms and a lot of fellow students will know the team and when games are happening. Nice to see, in coming years, that student section grow to a couple of thousand! For now, if they get 400 or more that is fantastic.! Great job guys, and hope the students come out this Saturday, should be a fun nite!!
Props to Harper, Clair , Jefferson and Coordinator supreme: Jaime Smith,good job Jaime!!
These guys are funny. Good job guys.
Well, Pepperdine took it to UC Riverside in the second half, winning 62-40. They use 3 guards and 2 forwards. But they have a 7 footer coming off the bench. So what is Gib going to counter that.
Does he play the same lineup, or does he go small. When we opend the season we started Fotu and Standhardinger, with Vander coming off the bench. I think we need to go push the ball, we have the depth to run in subs freely to keep everybody fresh. Jawato is waiting to play, Clair is ready, Harper is itching, heck even Valdes can help right now. Gotta use some speed and shoot the ball. We have to see what we have now before Big West conf. starts. Because Hauns has not been shooting the ball well, maybe he comes off the bench too.Just saying that production is everything. Start Jefferson instead of Tavita, he earned the minutes last week with his performance. Every player should understand that nothing is a given. Coach Arnold should only think about getting the maximum effort, and PRODUCTION, CAPITAL PRODUCTION. I’m not the coach so we have to see what happens. The last 4 games, we shot the ball pretty well from 3 pt. land. The last 2 games, we were terrible from 3 pt. land. Spearman, Brereton, and Standhardinger have gone cold from the outside. Ozi needs to start hitting from the outside. Jawato and Clair can shoot, but they hardly see the floor. Jefferson/Tavita are not 3 pt. threats and we don’t want Vander to be jacking up 3 pts. shots too much. So, somebody has got to get hot. Who will that be?But, I think the team will rise up to play a very good game tomorrow and win #5 on the season.
Real nice seeing these players having fun promoting the coming game.
Finally I see The Roop enjoying his time here
Wow… very cool.
Nice to see team morale is good and the players are getting along with each other.
Seeing the curved halls of Hale Aloha brings back good memories. I see the furniture arrangement hasn’t changed at all. Also they ended up at my old stomping grounds in Hale Noelani. I think I puked on that staircase after a fine evening of festivities. Those were the good old days.
Still remember sneaking kegs through the fire exit and up the stairs in Wainani (to avoid the front desk security) to another athlete dorm.
Derek… If a 7 footer is coming off the bench, then that usually means he’s not that good (see Davis Rozitis). Would be funny to match Rozitis on their 7 footer and watch them fumble around…
But in all seriousness, UH should be able to handle Pepperdine. UH just needs to control the boards and take care of the ball. We’ll see if Valdes starts getting some minutes. With so many days off in the past few weeks, Valdes should be up to speed with schemes and set plays.
I’m not a fan of this much time off, but the good thing is that UH has a lot of time to work on their flaws.
Should be interesting to see how many minutes Brereton gets in the next few games. If he doesn’t start shooting, his roll is going to be phased out as Jefferson and Valdes are far better defenders. Gib also could go big with Vander, Fotu, and Standhardinger on the floor at once. As Oz develops, he could also take minutes away from Brereton.
Great video, as usual. And who could resist such charming invitations to attend the games?
By the way, back in November Brian McInnis wrote that Aaron Valdes would be redshirting this year.
Is there no limit to the talent of this team!!!!
Former UH Athlete,
For the mother’s of all students, I think that you meant to say that your “good memories” were not necessarily of “puking over the stairs” but rather of the comraderie and friends that you made from studying hard etc etc lol
The players are great sports. It’s terrific to see them promote the program this way. I’m proud to support them.
Their 7 footer is 300+ lbs. I think we just have our bigs run up and down a few times. He’ll be huffin and puffin in no time. He averaged 10 min in 5 games. 11 total points. Don’t think he much of a threat.
I am lovin’ this team and their camaraderie. This is a special team. Hope it all comes together on Saturday.
See everybody there.
As Hard as they’re working at classes, their games and connecting with their dorm-mates,
they deserve the student support and success they’re getting…
They’re making the dorm experience better and more fun for all the students…
Way to go guys, and Jamie Smith!
Beat Pepperdine !
Keep Improving!
! Davis, The Beast, Got Game !