UPDATED: Warriors drop Big West road opener at Irvine
IRVINE, Calif. – The price on turnovers is even more costly in Southern California than it is in Honolulu. The Hawai’i basketball team found that out the hard way during a 68-64 loss at UC Irvine on Wednesday night.
The Warriors committed 17 turnovers, including five during a crucial four-minute stretch late in the game when the Anteaters were able to open up a lead.
A crowd of 1,541 at the Bren Events Center watched Irvine snap Hawai’i’s three-game winning streak. The Warriors are now 9-6 overall and 3-1 in the Big West; the Anteaters are 8-9 and 2-2.
“Darn it, I thought the effort was great all night,” Hawai’i head coach Gib Arnold said. “I thought the guys played their heats out … did a lot of good things, just not enough to win. Looking back, I think the main thing would be our turnovers. We turned it over too much and didn’t turn them over as much as we need to. That’s something we need to keep working on.”
The sloppy finish overshadowed what was previously a back-and-forth game for the national television audience on ESPNU. The teams exchanged the lead 21 times during the game, including 15 times in the second half.
Senior center Vander Joaquim led the Warriors with 15 points and seven rebounds. He shot 7 of 9 from the field, but was limited to 24 minutes due to foul trouble.
“That’s part of the game,” Arnold said. “We’re deep enough to where we can handle if one guy gets in foul trouble. It’s a team effort. Davis (Rozitis) I thought played a lot of minutes and did a nice job, but obviously we like the big fella out there as much as we can.”
Junior forward Christian Standhardinger got his team-leading sixth double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Guards Brandon Spearman and Brandon Jawato added 12 and nine points, respectively. Rozitis contributed six points and seven rebounds in 14 minutes off the bench.
The Warriors out-rebounded the Anteaters, 46-34, but shot just 35.6 percent from the field.
“We didn’t do enough,” Jawato said. “We need to take care of the ball. That’s basically our main goal. We locked down their top scorers, we did everything it took to win. It was just our turnovers.”
Irvine shot 39 percent from the field, but committed just 10 turnovers. Chris McNealy, who was 4 for 26 from 3-point range prior to the game, went 3 for 5 from long range and led the Anteaters with 15 points off the bench.
Hawai’i had a 31-23 lead late in the first half, but Irvine closed the half with a 5-0 surge to make it 31-28 at intermission. The first 15 minutes of the second half then turned into a tug-of-war for the lead.
The Warriors’ last lead was at 57-56 with 4:53 remaining. The Anteaters then scored eight unanswered points to take a 64-57 lead with 1:24 remaining. Irvine guard Daman Starring sank an off-balance jumper as the shot clock was about to expire to cap the surge.
“(Starring) was really well guarded and we did a good job on the boards, but they got a couple of putbacks that we’d like to probably have back,” Arnold said. “It’s too bad because I thought the guys played hard and anytime you’re on the road you just want to be in there at the end. We were right there and let it slip away.”
The Warriors put on a full-court press in the closing minute to make it exciting. Jawato hit an off-balance 3-pointer to make it 67-63, and then Garrett Jefferson got a steal on the ensuing inbounds play. Jawato took another 3-point attempt that could have cut the lead to one, but the ball rattled out.
“We never gave up,” Spearman said. “We played hard. That’s what you have to do every road game.”
Hawai’i will get another shot at a road win this week. The Warriors will remain in Southern California, and will play at Long Beach State on Saturday.
(Game photos courtesy Warren Haraki)
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Special thanks to Pacific Risk Solutions for sponsoring the road coverage for WarriorInsider.com.
Really???
As Coach said, Game / Win was within Reach…
Too many mistakes: OUR (esp. unforced) Turnovers and NOT Shutting them down let it slip away;
IF They execute (O & D) Better and can stay in the Game or Lead Saturday,
Team has to Perform Better in Last 3-5 minutes of BOTH Halves…
Just wondering will Hauns Brereton ever get to take his nose out of the corner and play with the other kids on the playground?
Was anyone else wondering why Gib had Pavlovic handling the ball late in the second half? Nothing against Pavlovic, but that was a position he had never been put in before and it showed with two crucial and completely preventable turnovers (what looked like mainly due to miscommunication). Clearly Tavita was having a hard time, and he was trying to change it up, but you would think that he would go with the more experienced Jefferson before a freshman.
I think I’m with most people in getting very frustrated with not simply the turnovers, but the KIND of turnovers the team is committing. Most, if not all of the turnovers are occurring in the backcourt and being turned into quick points for the opponent. The fact that Hawaii is still managing to hang around despite these disheartening blows is both encouraging and frustrating. If we could just clean them up I really feel these games are easy W’s for the team.
On a brighter note, free throw shooting was great. Sorta offset the turnovers there for a bit.
Tough one to lose. We’ll be ok though we will bounce back. We were the better team and considering it was only the 2nd true road game of the year we’ll do better. The effort was good. Just couldn’t hit a shot.
Christian went 3-11 not himself. Committed 2 turnovers that turned into layups.
Spearman went 4-13 missed alot of at the rim layups.
Jawato 3-11 (love the kid) but we can’t expect him to shoot every game like last game.
That’s 10-35 from the field. You don’t win road games shooting that way. Most of these attempts were near the basket.
I’m with Memphis. Could we not give Hauns more than 3 min? On the road always go with Seniors. We can play the young guys at home but road games are different. Look at the difference of Jawato’s performances at home and on the road.
Tavita started at PG had 5 turnovers. Take him out of the game and we still had 12 turnovers. UCI as a team had 10. There has got to be more accountability on not just our guards (Tavita, Roop, Jawato, Jefferson, OZ, etc) but also on our bigs. We are turning the ball over as a team. Christian had 2 and Fotu had 3 and all 5 turned into point production on the other end. We caused alot of problems for UCI in the first half with them turning the ball over but didn’t bring the same pressure the 2nd half.
Effort was good. We will still win conference. More road games we’ll get our confidence at the rim better and score more points. Team needs to communicate better in order to minimize turnovers. Stan Sheriff rims have become too comfortable.
Lets get the win on Saturday!
Guards should be taking the blame for the turnovers. The bigs at times will get stripped when they are double-triple teamed but its the guards fault for not creating and spacing out the floor. Teams are sagging in the paint cause the only threat at this point from the outside is Jawato. Hauns is all but dissapeared, Tavita can’t shoot to save his life, Jefferson and Spearman are slash to the rim type guys and not legit shooters. Ozi is still learning and timid. Roop is young and again has suspect ball-handling just like Jace. The bigs are carrying this team and is our obvious strength but if the guards would contribute even half of what the bigs are producing then this team wouldn’t be in tight games. We should have beat every team comfortably aside from maybe UNLV. The free throws have been looking better but the turnovers are just unexplainable. Careless ball-handling and suspect decision making. None of the guards really have the ability to create much, maybe Spearman. Everyone else is methodical and more spot up shooter types. Too bad Shamburger is sitting out this season cause his play-making ability would definitely help this team. Regardless, guards need to help each other out on top more by keeping the ball moving. Too much dribbling up top and picking up the dribble at the wrong times when no one is open. Gotta be smart with the ball guys.
Manroop only 2 minutes. Was he sick? We missed his offense. Could have made a difference. I didn’t hear why he hardly played. I didn’t like Ozi handling the point. He should be on the wing.
Based in 4.5 pts dog for Warriors, the takers won by 1/2 of a pt (sorry)!
Win, credit goes to the players.
Lost, blame belongs to the Coach.
Rougher road is ahead.
Can we adjust? Can we learn from it?
Positive synergy produces positive emotion all-plane-ride-home!
Not sure I understand Gibs substitution patterns last night. Roop and Hauns who normally get big minutes barely get to sniff the court. We leave Tavita in there when he can’t handle the ball then he subs in Pavlovic who rarely plays over Roop and Hauns. Are people sick, in the dog house or he just felt that the matchups were bad? I don’t understand the personnel moves last night.
I think we are all disappointed in the result last night, as we lost a very winnable game. As Coach Gib stated as well as Spearman, we need to tighten up the turnovers (8 TOs by the point guards), especially at key moments as well as unforced TOs is not going to cut it come March. We also need to remember that regardless of how many conference wins we have in January and February, the only way we will make the NCAA is to win the Big West Tournament on March 14-16. If you look at the current RPI rankings the BWC is 17th. That means only the conference tournament winner is getting in. I think the goal of the coaching staff is to find the right mix of players that will give us the best chance to win those 3 games in the BWC Tourney and get to the NCAA. We can’t expect guys to come in cold in March if they don’t get any playing time in January and February, which I think is the reason why the coaching staff is going deeper in the rotation than usual. I also think we have a talented group of players this year that we haven’t had in the past where we can actually play 12 guys and still have a chance to win the game. Keep your focus guys, work hard the next couple of days and let’s get a win at The Beach!!
In Vegas, where I am now the line yesterday was Hawaii, +7, needless to say I took the generous points. But I’m still mad about that loss. Arnold has a lot of splaining to do, why Hauns and Manroop got so little minutes. You win 3 straight in conference, why does he change the starting lineup? Why mess with a good thing? I’ll take the $500 winnings, but the team deserved better coaching decisions. Period. And go to Fotu more. He’s money!
UH has to run Offensive stuff flawless. The whole game, manage ball, cherish the possession. They don’t have that Chris Paul PG, so they have to do with what they got. All the guys, lock down. That is something they control. Every guy take care of ball, meet ball, interesting look with Ozren at point forward, he can bring up ball against teams like Irvine, lack of communication. He pass to area where he thought guy would be, they weren’t, Jace might angle, of entry pass, or errant passes, actually all perimeter guys.
Still, at this point , Coaches do what they can, they can’t play of floor for the guys, the players have to execute. I am sure Gib and Benjy, Fish, Brandyn are aging by the minute. However they are the coaches, keep working the guys, go ahead UH, get much better. By Big West Tourney, hope you guys make that 3-0 run, then everything good. Now, get ready for The Beach(LBSU)
Yes, I wonder if Manroop, Hauns and Isaac were sick? They were 3-0 at home with Manroop starting at point. As Gib says , matchups, determine starters. Still, as others here have stated, Now Gib is playing 12 guys, no one is pouting, so every guy, when given opportunity has to do well, Maybe tighten up rotation. Don’t know. Guys and coaches keep working it, as MB says, the whole point of season: 1)regular season champ-NIT bid 2)Big West tourney champ-NCAA bid.
horrible!!!!….always playing down to the lesser opponent
SOME May be Sick…
SOME Will have Off Nights (Shooting, focus, execution, maybe even ball-handling…)
UNTIL They Get Past the Underlying (Young, Inexperienced), Repetitive (Each of the Guys has to Learn the Lessons to All Get On the Same Page)…. there will be Lapses and Some, Hopefully Less & Less, Backsliding …
Then, they should look like, and eventually become a reasonably or Very, Reliable Performing Team …
Rebounding (Check, although UCI Hung for awhile)
Defense (Better, Still Occaisional Lapses Last 3-5 minutes)
Outside Shooting (Getting Out-Shot becoming a lesser occurence)
Free-Throw Shooting (Close, Letʻs see this one for a while, definitely “looking” two notches better)
Passing & Ball-Handling (Probably Improving, Can See Learning going on, When will it “Click”?)
[DID ANYONE NOTICE that this clicked in for Na Wahine who WERE Horrendous prior…?)
Turnovers (Partly a function of: On-Ball DEFENSE — they canʻt attack so well when you got THEM on their heels and reeling when they turn this one around; Executing Offense — Communication, familiarity, recognition — as well as; Passing & ball-handling)
As (former) Coach Jackson pointed out last night: “… the Team is still “ONE-UP” with the Unexpected Fullerton Comeback; and almost did it again last night…” they just need to keep improving and cleaning up those weaknesses …
The Story ʻbout Riley telling the team, “IF youʻre going to throw it away, throw it ten rows up into the stands,” (not to the other team for an easy transition basket) is hilarious and instructive…
The Improvements ARE Noticeable … NOT the Least of which is The Manifestion of what many bloggers thought they saw in early pre-season, that 1 through 12 CAN Play … Very Few are even Near their Ceiling Potential (even Vander); Coach believes “this is probably the deepest team (and maybe most versatile team in the long run) — weʻll know when weʻve seen everybody (all BW Teams)…”
The backslides or continuing errors are Frustrating but ALL the Margins are Improving…
Itʻs Almost Getting to the Point that All 12 Can play at Almost Any Time (Just a Matter of what skills/experience level Coach wants on the floor) … soon more of the players will be better filling in their own muscle-memory & instinctual/reflex understanding of this teamʻs and this coachesʻ version of basketball…
The UPSIDE Is Huge …
As Quickly As Almost Every Player is Climbing, Enough COULD Kick In by Saturday
But i would forecast that it IS Kicking In…. Just a matter of How Soon…
——————
(And Looking at the Size and Skills they may be ADDING Next Year is Impressive…
TWO Sweet Shooting Big MEN and TWO High Flying Wings…)
Lose the first game on the road trip and the second one is more dicey. Not to mention LBSU is the pre season top dog. Not good. The best player on the team to me is Fotu, followed by Christian, then Vander. And where’s Jefferson? In a tight game on the road, you need his good defense, don’t you think. Better than Tavita. Jefferson looks to penetrate, Tavita stays mostly stays outside. Tell me my eyes are wrong, please. Pavlovic is a liability on defense. He’s a 3 pt. shooter, a good one. Keep him in the wings or the corners where he is most effective. I thought Gib says he plays to each person’s strength. Well, Ozi is not a PG or even a Point forward. Come on, man!
Not sure why Roop didn’t play much. I’m sure we’ll find out why soon enough.
Tavita played a decent game until he went color blind an started passing to Irvine in the 2nd half. Turnovers weren’t big issue until the consecutive turnover stretch that broke the game open for Irvine.
You can go ahead and put this in stone… If UH turns it over more than 15 times, they probably have a 10% chance of winning the game. They would need terrific shooting to overcome that many turnovers. In any conference, you cannot waste possessions on the road. Missed shots are much better than cheap turnovers.
KEYS FACTORS:
I counted up 20 points off UH turnovers. UH only got 9 points off 11 turnovers. That’s a (-11) differential, so there’s your game right there. Also, on four occasions where UH created a turnover, they turned it over right back. Those are momentum killers.
UH did well from the free throw line overall (15 of 19) but only went (2 of 5) in crunch time (the last 5 min).
UH gave up 10 offensive rebounds that led to 10 second chance points. That’s not a terrible number but it’s not good either.
Vander played very efficiently, but foul trouble limited his presence. I think he’s finally understanding how to beat double teams. I love the kick-out and re-post action, which I’ve been calling for the past few weeks. After a couple re-posts, Vander took advantage when Irvine failed to resend the double team.
UH shot pretty poorly through out the entire game. 35% isn’t going to win many games on the road. UH just didn’t make many open looks. Execution was good throughout most of the game (when not turning it over).
Irvine shot 52% in the 2nd half. Give them credit, they hit some key shots down the stretch and made most of their crunch time FTs.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS:
I actually though they executed their offense better that any other game this year, but just couldn’t knock down the open shots. I’m a fan of the pound it in the post and kickout for 3’s philosophy. The next progression in that offense is: after the kick-out, the Tavita needs to penetrate as defenses aren’t guarding him. He’s not a consistent shooter, so he needs to penetrate to become a threat. Again, Tavita just needs to be aggressive enough to keep defenses honest. Settling for 3’s is what defenses want Tavita to do.
Spearman will be the X-factor for UH in Big West play. He can get to the rim anytime he wants. I honestly believe that there isn’t a single Big West guard who can contain him when he’s decides to slash to the hoop. I think when Vander is out, Spearman should be attacking the rim more.
UH has an incredibly flexible roster, so Gib can make adjustments if the flow of the game isn’t favorable. The down side to being flexible is that it takes 10 minutes to figure out what’s going to work best.
I TOLD YOU SO SECTION:
I told you all that UH (+7) was an easy cover…. Got a bit nervous as UH was coughing up turnovers and the lead shot up from 1 to 9. But Irvine showed us why I didn’t think they deserved to be that big of favorite.
ON TO THE NEXT:
At Long Beach on Saturday will be a challenge. Probably the toughest home court in the Big West. The crowd won’t be sparse like a practice in Gym 2 in lower campus. It will be loud and rocking.
No early spreads have been set yet, but I think UH will be about a legit 7 or 8 point underdog. LBSU is a solid team and their newly eligible transfers now have about 3-4 games under their belt now. UH will need to dominate the glass to win. I don’t think UH will shoot 35% two games in a row so I think it will be another close game.
Just like I mentioned earlier, if UH goes over 15 turnovers, they will lose vs LBSU. If UH is under 12 turnovers, I think they win.
A good positive of Big West Play for UH. No real fatigue factor. On Sat. UH in Cali for about 6 days, just shy of a week. Have two good practice days to get ready. UHA, you are right, in fact this whole forum, and Gib and team know, they win the turnover battle, 12 or less, and shoot in the mid to high 40 per cent from field and continue very good FT shooting from first minute to last, I think, in my opinion, the Big West , UH can play with any team, at home or on the road. Just have to clean up the turnover situation.
You are right , the execution, when Jace running show in first half, was great, they looked like a Big West title contender. Big factor, UH , I don’t think they will get blown out. They (i.e. UNLV game second half performance effort)look like they can match big for big against LBSU and need that perimeter production. Should be a great game. One game at a time guys, improve.
Another Observation…
Oz’s pass to Rozitis on the pick-n-roll was awesome.
UH think the offense needs to evolve a little bit vs the 2-3 zone. UH was continuously pounding it into the post but vs the 2-3 there’s not much room for Vander to operate, as he’s got the 5 behind him, the 3 collapsing from the corner, and the 2 within reach from the elbow/wing.
It would be a more effective if they get Standhardinger to flash to the high post and work a hi-lo with Vander…
How it works is the ball must go to the wing, (for the sake of example, the ball goes to the right wing first). Meanwhile, Vander is working for position at the post and Standhardinger runs the baseline to the ballside corner. After Tavita delivers the ball to the wing (Jawato), he makes a backside cut then curls to the elbow. If Vander isn’t open, then the ball can either get to Tavita at the elbow (for a hi-lo entry to Vander).
More than likely, being early in the set, the defense will probably have it covered. If nobody is open, Tavita flashes back to point for reversal to the opposite wing (Spearman). Then Jawato sets a screen on the corner defender and Standhardinger flashes to the high post. Meanwhile, Vander will try and seal his defender. Ball should get to Standhardinger at the high post and if Vander gets the seal, it’s an easy pass&layup for Vander.
After Tavita completes the ball reversal he then sets a screen on the defender that guards the right wing, Jawato (who’s now at the right corner after the setting the screen) then flashes to the top, curling off the screen to the top of the circle for a 3 point shot if Standhardinger isn’t open at the high post.
This set does two things… 1. It overloads the zone; 2. It occupies defenders to prevent double teams on Vander
In the first part of the set, Jawato with the ball at the wing, Vander at the post, Standhardinger at the baseline/corner, and Tavita at the elbow… the right half of the zone is outnumbered 4 vs 3.
After the ball reversal and once the ball gets to Standhardinger at the high post, here’s what it does:
1. If the low-corner defends Standhardinger at the high post, it takes away the help defender for Vander.
—- 1b. With no more low corner help, Spearman has a back door cut lane.
—- 1c. With no more low corner help, Spearman can slide to the corner for a 3pt shot.
2. If the high defender covers Standhardiger and Tavita setting the screen on other high defender, that means nobody can cover Jawato at the top.
3. If nobody reacts to Standhardinger, he’s got an open shot or drive lane.
In the 2-3 zone, it’s biggest weakness is the high post with crisp ball movement. If the ball gets to the high post, it causes matchup problems especially after a couple of fast reversals. If the ball doesn’t move quickly, it gives the defense time to react and catch up.
You have to make the zone work hard to open up easy shots. The harder the defenders have to work, the more likely a defender misses an assignment, or someone doesn’t have the legs to get out to close out on a shooter.
IMO, Roop/Brereton didn’t play much because of the match up. UCI looks to have taller beefier players that would have manhandled The Roop.
Neither Manroop nor Hauns was effective in the short minutes each played, but I was still surprised that neither got playing time once they were pulled. I absolutely think the world of Hauns; always have. But for whatever reason he’s lost confidence. I think he was open from 3 on his first shot, but elected to step in closer (wisely) and still missed. He penetrated and took two more shots from good range — shots that he’ll hit all day — but missed both. At that point, I think Gib felt he needed to get Jawato, who is brimming with confidence, in there.
Jace had some costly turnovers (is there such a thing as a non-costly turnover?), but he shot 2 of 4 from 3-point range. He’s actually a decent spot-up shooter from deep; wish he’d use his strength to drive and dish, but that doesn’t appear to be part of his repertoire. Too bad.
I think what really hurt the team last night was the inability to finish at the rim. Christian couldn’t complete a couple putbacks and Spearman — two talented, high-energy guys — made some tough drives only to leave the ball on the rim. Granted they were heavily guarded (I thought Irvine’s interior defense was excellent), but if a few of those had fallen it’s a different ballgame. Take, for example, the well-designed and perfectly executed play in the closing 2.9 seconds of the half — UH had two point-blank shots (a layup and a tip) at the basket, but neither fell.
As for Ozi playing the point, he did the same during one game of the recent homestand. I know Gib wanted to play Ozi in meaningful minutes as an investment in the future. Perhaps that’s why he was in there late in the game, but still was surprised Jefferson didn’t see the court until the final minute.
I’m not sure what happened to Fotu; very quiet night. There was a rumor that he was sick; he didn’t seem to be fully engaged as he usually is. Was it the collapsing defense? Was he deferring to Vander? I don’t know, but it wasn’t the same Isaac that I’ve seen all season — starting in the summer league. Hopefully, he and the team bounces back on Saturday.
Still, the team is 3-1 in conference and is gaining in experience. I, for one, like seeing the deep rotation Gib is developing. It should pay off in the end, but it’s still tough losing a close one. And I think that’s how it’s going to be the rest of the conference season. Sorry for being long-winded!
clyde, UHA, Derek, DK, etc. really appreciate observation of game and breakdown. Seems like simple game, put the ball into basket, at final buzzer have one more point then opposition. Lot of strategy and players executing. UH one through twelve is their mantra. Maybe this year, that is it.
They win as Twelve, they lose as Twelve. This road experience, and ongoing development, and remember, if that key stretch with 5 min to go and 3 consecutive TO’s, they play lockdown, confident ball, they are 4-0 and heading for Big match against the Beach on Sat.
Like this team, they are going to play their hearts out, and take care of the ball, who finishes in last 10 minutes, if close game, key. Too much to handle if every game comes down to final 50 seconds., however if they wing Big West regular crown, or Big West Tourney by The Twelve, so be it. We will be dancing down the streets!
The final nail for Hauns last night was the last two shots he didn’t take.
It happened, after his first couple of misses.
There was a possession where he trailed on a secondary break. He caught the ball in rhythm at the stripe, and the defender offered but a soft close out, but Hauns still didn’t pull the trigger. He pump faked, shift dribbled to an open area to the left, a step within the stripe, had an opening, and still didn’t shoot it.
At that point, its almost like you had no choice but to take him out. If your shooter won’t shoot, and refuses to attack and be aggressive, you’ve got to move on to someone who will.
I love the kid, and hope he breaks out of this funk. He needs to stay aggressive and take and make shots.
I can’t believe we lost. I really thought we got off to a great shooting start, but once we started blowing lay-ups left and right, I knew it was inevitable. At least we made our FT’s….so now that we have those down, let’s go back to practicing lay-ups! Turnovers, as always were also a big factor and we didn’t take care of business. I won’t be able to watch the game on Saturday, but I’m thinking that might be a good thing cuz I have a feeling it’s gonna get ugly.
Former UH Athlete and playhoopsa- absolutely right. The best offensive execution looked all year.
Unfortunately Clyde was right too, couldn’t finish at the hoop. If we finished better could’ve one that game in double digits even with the turnovers.
With Jawato having an off night I wish we could’ve rotated Roop and Bereton through. Roop should play a wing position to get some shots up. He’s more an asset as a spot up shooter. Sometimes the shots are falling sometimes they aren’t. We need to get the shooters through the rotation.
Our guys are fine. The games that will matter most for our post season destiny are Big West tournament games. We are learning and growing along each game.
We are easily right at the top in this conference. Big win for us coming up Saturday. We can beat LB.
Run the offense like we did last night, finish shots this time, keep defensive pressure up more consistently all game, bigs don’t allow easy put backs, and rotate the hot shooters through.
Warriors all day!
they gotta work on their passes. It’s sick watching their passes get pick off or just thrown away somehow. I can only recollect Ozi and Jawato passing the ball and their team mate not being able to retrieve it for one reason or another.
all UH’s opponents knows UH’s weak spot: Pg play and it seems they know which player lacks in ability. Think they already are keying up on UH’s pg.
Sorry but Warriors can not beat LB State on their best day! Poor coaching decisions and inexperienced guards! Mahalo.
Dallan,
You might be right. However, if UH cleans up turnover situation, shoots much better inside and out, LBSU, is not undefeated in regular season or in 4 games in conference. So, LBSU can be beat, they have lost about 7 or 8 games already.
Look for UH to give one of their better performances this game. I think Big West officiating crew, let the guys play, which is good, gives UH Bigs and smalls chance on road or at home. Hauns has to be a factor, so does Manroop, I think Gib will use whomever and any number of players to get win.
If Hawaii, shoots well, and limits turnovers as UHA said, which is a truism, 12 or less, and close out a game they are leading in last 5 min, Hawaii wins. Roll the ball out, jump ball, control game and pace, equals(with a Poly loss or two)= First Place.
We all want UH to get at least split, and these guys, such great character, great students, and good guys, are working their butts off to get it done. If not this Sat with a big win at a beatable Beach. Well, UH will beat the Beach in the Big West Tourney. At this point: UH, Go For Broke!
mid-range game… good observation on Hauns.
When watching, Hauns had two wide open 3pt looks, in rhythm catch-n-shoot (the best kind), but failed to pull the trigger.