Warriors will make Big West debut this weekend
Ready or not, the Hawai’i basketball team will make its debut in the Big West Conference this weekend.
The Warriors will host Cal State Northridge on Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center. The game will start around 7:30 p.m., following a UH women’s basketball game at 5 p.m.
The Warriors went 6-5 in their non-conference games in November and December.
“That whole preseason time gets you prepared to go into conference play,” head coach Gib Arnold said. “I think we were able to do that. The one thing we wanted to do was get Vander (Joaquim) back healthy and in shape and get through the preseason without him obviously hurting that knee anymore, and I think we’ve accomplished that.”
Joaquim, a 6-foot-10 senior center, was unable to start the first two games of this season (although he did play limited minutes) due to an injured right knee. He declared himself “100 percent” this week, and his last two games may prove it, as he recorded 52 points and 24 rebounds.
Joaquim leads the team in scoring at 15.8 points per game, and rebounding at 8.1 per game.
“We’re ready,” Joaquim said. “The coaching staff, they did a good job preparing us for the games, and we just can’t wait to go out there.”
Junior forward Christian Standhardinger is right behind Joaquim in both scoring (15.5) and rebounding (7.8). Interestingly, Standhardinger is the only Hawai’i player to start every game this season.
Arnold has mixed the starting lineup and rotation of players throughout the non-conference season. Part of it is because the coaches are trying to find the best matchups for each opponent. But it also has to do with an active roster that features five freshmen.
“We made it an emphasis, especially through the Diamond Head (Classic), to get them more minutes,” Arnold said of his freshmen. “We’re going to need them once we start getting to those Thursday-Saturday games. We’re going to need more depth and we’re going to need their outside shooting.”
As a result, nine of the 12 players on the active roster have started at least one game already this season, and all 12 players have scored points.
“Every guy has got a time this year where I think they played really well,” Arnold said. “Hopefully that’s a confidence builder, where you can always refer back to ‘hey, do you remember when you did this?’ ”
For freshman point guard Manroop Clair, that moment came this week, when he started his first two games of the season and responded with 21 points and six assists while playing an average of 33 minutes in each game. Prior to those two games, he was averaging 1.7 points and around seven minutes per game.
“It was definitely big,” Clair said of his opportunity to watch and learn earlier in the season. “It helped a lot, learning from Jace (Tavita) and Garrett (Jefferson), even Keith (Shamburger). All those guys helped me, and their still helping me.”
Arnold said he will continue to mix the lineups, based mostly on the opposing teams, and now he feels confident that he can call on any of the Warriors at any time.
“That’s the great part about this team,” Clair said. “We have so much depth, we can play anyone at any time.”
Fellow freshman Isaac Fotu added: “I think that’s why we’re going to be so good. Anyone on our team could have a night where they have 20 (points). It will be hard for teams to scout us.”
Then again, the other teams in the Big West appear tough to scout as well, as many of the teams have had up-and-down showings in November and December. Only three of the 10 teams in the conference currently have winning records: Cal State Northridge (9-3), Cal State Fullerton (6-5) and Hawaii (6-5).
Arnold, however, is aware that there are several solid teams in the Big West this season. He noted that Long Beach State is awaiting the addition of three NCAA Division I transfers this week, and that Cal State Fullerton has “the best backcourt” in the conference, and that Pacific and UC Irvine have experienced rosters.
“I think it’s going to be a battle every night,” he said. “I don’t see anybody going in there and blowing anybody away or anything like that. I think we’re going to have to come to play every night.”
Game Information: Hawai’i vs. Cal State Northridge
When: Saturday, December 29, 7:30 p.m.
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. Fans with a men’s ticket will be admitted free to the preceding women’s basketball tournament games. Special upper level ticket rates will be also be available on from two hours prior to the start of the women’s basketball game until halftime of the women’s game.
Promotions: Pepsi is the game sponsor and will award a years supply of Pepsi products at halftime.
Hey Dayton, since the start, enjoyed WI, your hard work and wonderful sponsors. A lot of great fans and comments. Now you are globally recognized as source for all things MBB and things related. Glad I was able to
start to post comments along with Eagle, Clyde, al, njoy, etc. from beginning about 2 years ago. Now, I have to dictate, someone is typing for me…hard for that person.,, so I bid a fond farewell to WI forum, I will follow your updates and videos, you and WI are still the best for UH Rainbow Warrior Basketball.
Eyes, tired, hands and wrists, not able, enjoy the new followers on this site from around the world, as Eagle stated , and alluded to me, UHF, hey: come on, keep on posting..well, to great fan Eagle, just like the Warriors, I gave it my best for some two years, now , I sit back and have someone else check site and relate information..time marches on and we all get a little older and “other stuff”…
Aloha, and Mahalo…Wish the best to Gib and team for rest of year.
A very grateful supporter of UH hoops since the mid sixties,
Uhfanzonly1, signing off!
Go Rainbow Warriors!!
Uhfanzonly1,
Sorry to hear about your situation and hope you get better soon.
Your support and participation on this site are greatly appreciated and I really hope this is not your last post. Please take care of yourself and know that you are always a part of the WI ohana.
Echoing Dayton’s sentiments, take care of yourself, Uhfanzonly1. Sit back, relax and enjoy the games, and continue to follow Dayton, Wes and the rest of the WI staff. Once your health improves, maybe an occasional post may work wonders for your spirits. I know a win on Saturday will surely help ya!
I am very sad to read your post uhfanzonly.
Who is going to keep us under control – who is going to welcome us from far and wide like you have?
I suggest that maybe you keep your posts shorter – only joking!!!
But really I understand that you must look after yourself – please take care and know that you are loved far and wide, throughout the globe and I will never forget you.
PS – I tell everyone in hawaii that my son plays UHMBB and I have been hoping that someone says oh I know you -you are Aussie mum – I am uhfanzonly1!!!!
Lots of love to you and we will miss you heaps!!!!!
Go warriors!!!!!
Uhfanzonly1,
take care of yourself, hopefully you get better some and return in the near future. You are the calmness on many blogs and message boards as some get very emotional when the losses starts to mount.
Aloha buddy
Uhfanzonly1, signing off!
I can not accept it no no no no way
everywhere in the world live in older people who are lonely and looking for some company even paid for it
I am very far away and I can not physically help
mental images are important so they say
I imagine a good strong patient granny who lives in the neighborhood and wants to be socially useful and will help you to read and write
I ask all fans who live close to try to find help
Uhfanzonly1 believe you somehow stay with us
if you guys win on Saturday it would be nice to dedicate this victory Uhfanzonly1
“I ask all fans” .. does not sound good I wanted to say please
I echo the sentiments of everybody previously. Nothing’s more important than having good health, love of family, and some good friends. Take care Uhonlyfanz1. It’s seems so impersonal to know you only by your post name. You have a real name, you have a spouse, kids, what high school, college, vocation, etc.?
Mahalo and thank you for very nice comments. I am(wrist ligament ailment, so hard to type)exactly the screen name I chose(I think there is another uhfanzonly)..A UH FAN…I am graduate, alumnus..I am not that old..love Hawaii and especially UH sports since 1960’s when in elementary school, playing little league baseball, church league basketball etc.
I did not expect all of your comments , I don’t want to draw attention to myself..on two forums, I wanted to create avid support for UH MBB, for long time, and new fans. ..and especially for ones like Aussie Mum, Ozi Mum, Tonganator, Memphis, etc.(yes A.Mum..when can post again, will be more concise! :D)for our athletes , and their Mums and Dads who have shared their sons with our University of Hawaii, I appreciate so much, as well as Gib and thousands of other fans, you can be proud of them. They are very good young men and student athletes.
In respect to my Better Half(!), I will take a hiatus from posting on two forums. I want all of you to keep the support for WI going, very important for Dayton and crew, this site is wonderful .UH MBB heaven!.
Every day I will check site to read, or have read to me, your posts…Much mahalo and love for you all. I am just a UH FAN…!
Thank you Dayton , once again..(I broke my own rule for this one time..usually if I say, I am done with something for awhile, I stick to it…however, the expressions were so heartfelt, it moved me..and MY secretary typing for me, to post a last time till hands, wrists, and eyes get better.
And Ozi Mum, you don’t worry, I am okay, it, my wrist syndrome is not fatal, I am still here!! You take care. and Aussie Mum , we all love you too!!
Aloha , and Warriors, go out and try to win the BWC!!
Alright… Let the real season begin!
I think UH scores a solid win on Saturday. CS Northridge is not as good as their record indicates. They have beaten soundly vs the 2 quality teams they’ve played. However they just scored their best win of the season @ Utah.
UH just needs to let the offense run through Vander and Fotu in the early going to establish post dominance and dominate the boards.
UH’s weak links this year have been points off turnovers and off. Rebs. UH should dominate the boards vs most Big West teams. As long as UH’s guards take care of the ball, I see a victory for UH
This game will set the tone for the Big West.
Aloha and take care uhfanzonly.
As for CS Northridge, by Big West Standards, they are a very good team. They fought from a 19 point deficit to beat Utah on the road. They also had a come-from-behind victory in their season opener against Pepperdine. Apparently, they know how to wear teams down and pull out close wins.
With that said, they don’t match up well with Hawaii. Their big-men are undersized and are not particularly good at rebounding. Their best rebounders are their SF and undersized PF. In order to rebound well against Hawaii, they’ll probably have send their guards to crash the boards, which will open up our transition offense (Trevor Wiseman had a field-day last year against them). They tend to apply on-the-ball pressure, which will also give us many open looks and slashes to the basket like our NMSU games last year. Yet, anything is possible if they can apply pressure to our point guards and get them into committing careless turnovers. Bobby Braswell is also one of the best coaches in the West.
I hope to see Spearman at some point this Saturday to be running the point ,he is our toughest guy with the best handles to take care of the ball and rip it to the basket if necessary.
DK… When Trevor Wiseman has a field day on anybody, they’re not a good team… So that should be a good indicator of things to come for UH.
CS-Northridge has three starters back from last years team that UH manhandled last year. Greene and Hicks are the primary offensive threats for CSN (same as last year).
CSN will only be 6’6″ and 6’7″ on the frontcourt, so I expect Vander, Standhardinger and Fotu to absolutely dominate the boards. Visiting teams typically shoot below their averages at the Stan Sheriff, so it’s imperative for UH to not allow 2nd chance points. The good news for UH is that they won’t be facing long, athletic forwards like UNLV, and Miami the rest of the season.
Gib has built this roster to dominate rebounding in the Big West and I think it will payoff big time. Just need Clair, Jawato, Spearman, Tavita to not give up careless turnovers.
Uhfanzonly1 good to read your comments again. Keep’um coming on WI.
Looking forward to reading more.
Well, CSUN was a sub-par team last year primarily due to them being put on academic probation and on a single year post-season ban. Because of a renewed focus on academics, Coach Braswell decided to go the freshman route instead of his typical JC recruitment, and now, most of those freshmen are sophomores. They were very bad last year. To give you an idea of how bad they were, we played Bobby Miles, Trevor Wiseman, and Shaq Stokes for the majority of that game and won by 19.
As far as this year, they’ve returned their top players (including preseason first team all-conference player, Stephen Hicks), recruited three very good freshmen — including Perry from Cali powerhouse Taff HS (Hicks is also from Taff), went undefeated in their summer tour in Canada, and had a great showing in the San Diego tournament with wins over host team San Diego and Tulsa.
I said on several times, and will say again, the success of this team will be guarding the 3 pt. line.
When we lose, we get killed by the 3. By Illinois, by UNLV, by Pepperdine, by Durant Scott from Miami and company, and by Ole Miss, Mr. Henderson. Protecting that line better and perhaps even extending the line another foot will lower the shooting percentage. We cannot trade 2 points for 3. If a team shoots, 2 for 5 from 3 pt. range, that’s 40%, and 6 points. 40% from 3 point range is not bad. On 2 point shots, to get 6 points you have to get 3 baskets, or 3 for 7 which is 42.8% shooting. That’s 2 more shots taken than the same percentage on 3 pointers. You can make up the extra shots by getting more offensive rebounds, or get extra possessions with the ball. It’s not rocket science, as President Bill Clinton would say, it’s arithmetic. Unless UH can trade 3 pointers against other teams, we lose that battle against good guards who shoot the ball well from the outside. What is UH’s season’s average from the 3 pt. line? There is only 2 ways you combat this against other teams. One, we have to shoot the ball better, and 2 defend the 3 better. That is what Arnold and the brain trust have to do with our team. Be successful at that and we have a puncher chance of doing well in the Big West and going forward. That, and improving the charity line. That said, I would play a 3-2 match up zone, even closer to a 4-1 zone defense, covering the corners too, if we play against 4 smaller players. Remember, Richardson from Illinois? Corner pocket to beat us.
Dear Uhfanzonly1,
I, too, was sad to read your temporary farewell, and sorry to hear that you are having difficulties.
Your cheerful, positive voice is such an integral part of WI and its far-flung community of readers, and you truly seem to enjoy posting about UHMBB, so I was wondering whether you had considered trying voice-recognition software.
I Googled this just now, and discovered that you can download such software for free and use it for composing email, commenting on blogs, and many other functions. Just search “voice recognition software” (minus the quotes).
I’ll look forward to reading your nice comments again before too long.
In the meantime, all best wishes for a very rapid recovery.
Aloha,
Kepola
Derek: Respectfully, I don’t think 3-point shooting defense has hurt UH — certainly not as much as turnovers at inopportune times and consistency from the guards and wings. You asked what UH’s shooting percentage was from 3-point territory. Would you be surprised that it’s better than the opposition’s? Hawaii is 71 for 211 (33.6 percent) from 3-point range. Its opponents are 84 for 256 (32.8 percent).
I agree, they didn’t do a good job on Henderson early — he shot 4 for 6 from 3-point range in the first half and was getting that cockiness that reminded me of Chris Herren. But once Gib put Clair on Henderson in the box-and-one, Henderson did not get off ONE field-goal attempt in the entire second half. Credit to Clair for shadowing Henderson all over the court.
But, as everyone knows, Big West teams are more perimeter-oriented so they’ll likely be taking more 3’s; I don’t know that for sure. We’ll see as the season plays out.
On another note: I hope Hauns can turn it around in conference play. He’s too good a player, and too much of a leader (by example, not vocally) to close out his career mired on the bench. He needs a confidence boost — whether it’d be by reassurance from Gib and his teammates, or a breakout game. I know it’s not in his personality, but I’d like to see Hauns play with a little swagger and be a little more selfish. I’d like to see the Hauns who threw down a breakaway dunk over a defender (was it NMSU?) in the WAC tournament (it made ESPN’s top plays) and the Hauns who torched the summer league. I pegged this young man as captain material soon after they signed him. He’s a guy of high character and I’d just like to see him finish his career here on a high note.
Yeah, we shoot 33.6% from 3 pt. land. We also shoot 66.1% from the charity line. To me, that’s not good enough. Gotta be closer to 38-40% at least on 3 pointers and at least 70% from the line.
Be basically has 5 guards on the team (Tavita, Jefferson, Clair, Spearman, and Jawato). Harper might be a guard but he’s more like a small forward. Ozi and Hauns, SF. Christian and Isaac, PF, Joaquin & Rozitis, C. That’s not a lot of good ball handling and shooting from the guards. Nobody’s is all-around. If we had Shamburger, he’s a double digit scorer, good on assists, and good ball handler. There would be a noticeable difference. We should be better next year. From the very beginning, the key was going to be the guard play. It still is and it will be the rest of the season because going deep in the tournament will be determined by the play of the guards. So guards, it’s up to you to raise your level of play. Somebody, or several of you needs to step up big time, beginning now. Clair, Spearman, and Jawato has the most upsides. Has Jefferson made a 3 yet? Tavita being a senior doesn’t have much of an upside. He’s good a dishing the ball, but a liability offensively and from the line and makes a lot of turnovers. I just can’t trust him in crunch time. If I’m wrong, he has to prove it. Wishing he does.
Maybe covering Hicks, Northridge’s best player and scorer might be the box and 1. Man to man on him and zone on the others. Don’t know if Arnold is even thinking about it. It worked on Henderson against Ole Miss. Just thinking.
I agree jjay, I also really like Spearman – he also stays focussed and maintains a steady game and i too love the way he takes it all to the basket!!
Re: UH’s 3-point shooting percentage. Oh, I agree, it’s not good. I was trying to make a point that as poorly as UH has shot from 3-point range, its defense on 3-point shooting hasn’t been that bad if the opposition has a worse shooting percentage.
Re: Guard play in crunch time. Hawaii doesn’t have someone who is willing to step up and take charge when needed. Take Mark Lyons of Arizona. On the last possession with his team down one, he took the inbounds pass, calmly dribbled while looking for his options, saw an opening and aggressively drove to the basket, got fouled, and calmly sank both free throws — the second coming after a San Diego State timeout.
But no sense lamenting what UH doesn’t have. Hawaii has to play to its strength — which is a solid front court — and hope the guard play in crunch time can at least be steady if not mistake-free. Will that happen? Guess we’ll see starting tomorrow night.
Sorry, Late …Out All Day…
UHFANZONLY1!
Mahalo for Your Contributions
Like So Many Above NOT Cosidering this an ʻEndʻ
TAKE CARE of Health Matters… Sorry for those difficulties that make it hard/impractical to post…
Please Dictate or Drop a Line or Two when you can…
Maybe SIRI/Dragon Dictation can get accurate enough to mostly make sense…
IF it sounds like barely coherent iʻm sure the kinder bloggers here will interpret (best) and support…
Keep On Keepinʻ On,
Warriors & Fans/ Supporters!
Start that Steeper Winning Curve, ʻBows!