Warriors hit the road again
It was a nice week at home for the University of Hawai’i basketball team. The Warriors got to spend Thanksgiving on O’ahu, and then feasted on Delaware State in a home victory five days after that.
Fed and rested, the Warriors will now return to the road.
The team is scheduled to depart Honolulu on Thursday morning, for what will turn into an all-day trek to get to Salt Lake City, Utah. The Warriors will face Brigham Young on Saturday afternoon (1 p.m. Hawai’i time) at the EnergySolutions Arena.
Hawai’i is 7-2 and on a three-game winning streak; BYU is 6-2, with both its losses coming in overtime (San Diego State and Purdue) at the Maui Invitational.
“I feel good about where we’re at,” UH acting head coach Benjy Taylor said. “It’s like with the cold weather or the long travel time. We really don’t worry about little things like that. We just try to go in and control what we can control and be ready to play.”
It is not going to be an easy trip. For starters, the Warriors will need a full day of travel on Thursday. They were scheduled to meet at the Stan Sheriff Center at 6 a.m. to head for the Honolulu airport. After a flight to Los Angeles and a two-hour layover, they will arrive in Salt Lake City around 9 p.m. (Mountain time).
Because of the long travel day on Thursday, the Warriors opted to practice at home in Gym 2 on Wednesday afternoon – less than 24 hours after the victory over Delaware State. “We can’t practice (on Thursday), so we had to go a little bit more (Wednesday) than we would normally do after a game,” Taylor said.
When the Warriors arrive in Salt Lake City, temperatures are expected to be in the low 40s.
“I like it,” sophomore forward Mike Thomas said. “I haven’t been in the cold in forever since coming to Hawai’i.”
Waiting for them will be a BYU team that leads the nation in scoring at 95.1 points per game. The Cougars have scored at least 85 points in every game this season. In contrast, Hawai’i is averaging 73.2 points per game, but has allowed only one opponent to score more than 80 points (San Francisco with 88).
“They can shoot it; they can really shoot it,” Thomas said of the Cougars. “We gotta get after them at the 3-point line and stop them in transition.”
BYU also has a legitimate All-America candidate in senior guard Tyler Haws, who currently ranks fourth in the NCAA in scoring at 23.8 points per game. Another BYU guard, Chase Fischer, hit 10 3-pointers in a victory over Chaminade at the Maui Invitational.
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Due to technical issues in the statistical system during the Warriors’ 75-60 victory over Delaware State on Tuesday, several UH players ended up with different stats than previously reported in the official boxscore.
Among the changes:
Aaron Valdes – 19 points and seven rebounds
Garrett Nevels – 15 points, 2 for 2 on 3-pointers, four rebounds
Negus Webster-Chan – 11 points, three rebounds, two steals, two assists
Mike Thomas – eight points and nine rebounds
Roderick Bobbitt – four points, seven assists, four rebounds
Isaac Fleming – nine points, four rebounds, four assists
CLICK HERE TO VIEW UPDATED BOXSCORE
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Former UH standout Isaac Fotu is now playing for La Bruixa D’Or Manresa in Spain’s top professional league. He had two points and two rebounds in 12 minutes of reserve time in his debut last week.
CLICK HERE to read a feature on Fotu from a New Zealand basketball website
Go Rainbow Warriors:
Play great defense, and control tempo on Offense, can come out with win. Just give great effort and learn, get better. See you all when you come back home ! Utah Jazz Arena should be real treat for UH MBB to play in. Not a real home gym for BYU. Hope that University of Utah Ute fans come out and cheer for Hawaii, or ex Hawaii transplants to Salt Lake , Utah.
Go Bows !!
🙂
I think this trip is going to be a good test for this team. I think it is more a real test than the Florida tournament of what the Big West road trips will be like. The Florida trip was all the way across the country and this team not going have to do that again. This trip little closer with stop in LA.
BYU also play fast and jack up the 3 like a lot of the Big West teams except BYU is big. BYU probably be picked to win Big West if they were in our conference so UH have to go in with same thinking they had for Pitt game.
A win for the 1st game of the 2nd road trip even bigger than that win for the 1st game of the 1st road trip.
“Control what you can control”.
All we fans need to do is to wish you the best of luck!
Hawaii always proud of your focused-effort.
Glad to see Mike got the credit for 9 rebounds, instead of the original 4 (The live stats were off during the game, at one point i think it had Stepteau with some stats) .
Good article about Fotu. Still gets me upset the way UH bumbled and fumbled that whole thing! It is really sad at the end of the article it says Fotu family still never heard anything from anybody at UH. It is really sad because that has become typical UH move. The Fotu family said they not bitter and that shows they are the bigger people in this.
I really miss the Fro! Go The Mighty Warriors!
Media coverage: Hey fans, and Dayton, if I am wrong please correct me.
BYU vs Hawaii in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sat. Dec 6 2014 100pm HST.
BYU TV on cable and online stream, from UH Athletics site MBB schedule
Saturday 100pm HST.
Online live stream: http://www.byutvsports.com/gameday/
TV cable: Oceanic BYUTV channel in SD 409(check sometimes Oceanic moves channel coverage around sorry), Direct TV, I am not sure.
I remember Tim Shepherd 6’5 1/2″ 248 pound super strong legged , Posterized 7’6″ All American Freshman and NBA veteran, Shawn Bradley at the old Blaisdell Center for a UH over BYU game. Also, the last second 3 point buzzer beater to beat BYU at SSC by Tes Witlock. And the WAC tourney win in Salt Lake City, Utah, by Trevor Ruffin led team for NCAA bid in 1994.
BYU had Danny Ainge, The infamous Reid brothers, Shawn Bradley, Michael Smith, Greg Kite, 7 foot center later played for world champion Boston Celtics, really older guys because of going on two year missions.
Hey, David vs Goliath.. the bigger they are.. well, we know how it went..
Go Bows!!
🙂
And Bob Nash and company beating BYU, with their All American type center 6’11’ Kresimir Cozic(sorry about spelling), in RBC. at the old HIC…
They are tall, older and can shoot. Defense, Defense, !!
24 Frank Bartley IV 6-3 200 G Sophomore Baton Rouge, LA Future College Prep 2013-2015
25 Jordan Chatman 6-5 190 G Freshman Vancouver, WA Union High School 2014-2015
5 Kyle Collinsworth 6-6 210 G Junior Provo, UT Provo High School 2010-2011 | 2013-2015
21 Kyle Davis 6-8 220 F Junior Draper, UT Utah State 2014-2015
2 Jordan Ellis 6-1 180 G Junior Medford, OR Portland State 2014-2015
1 Chase Fischer 6-3 195 G Junior Ripley, WV Wake Forest 2013-2015
23 Skyler Halford 6-1 175 G Senior Orem, UT Salt Lake Community College 2013-2015
3 Tyler Haws 6-5 195 G Senior Alpine, UT Lone Peak High School 2009-2010 | 2012-2015
44 Corbin Kaufusi 6-10 245 C Freshman Provo, UT Timpview High School 2014-2015
35 Isaac Neilson 6-11 225 F Freshman Mission Viejo, CA Mission Viejo HS 2013-2015
30 Dalton Nixon 6-7 215 F Freshman Orem, UT Orem High School 2014-2015
12 Josh Sharp 6-7 190 F Senior Highland, UT Utah 2011-2015
15 Jake Toolson 6-5 215 G Freshman Gilbert, AZ Highland High School 2014-2015
20 Anson Winder 6-3 190 G Senior Las Vegas, NV Bishop Gorman High School 2010-2015
41 Luke Worthington 6-10 235 F Sophomore Mequon, WI Homestead High School 2013-2015
ChuckCheese, agreed, my gut feeling about Fotu is that he would still be here if someone from UH gave him assurances that no matter what happens with the investigations the University would stand by him and back him up 100% and encourage him to stay. I think its a huge loss that could have been avoided.
I like our chances given our proven defense against 3 point shooting. Agreed we lost our top player in Fotu. But remember this team has talent top to bottom. We just got to use the talent we got and work around it. We lose height but we gain quickness. We gave Pitt the fits and we can do it again against BYU. There’re pretty much the same except they got better long range bombers. Will be interesting to see how much points we give up. I guarantee it won’t be 95. Win this one and we will be turning heads.
Yup, Fotu would of made this team very, very dangerous. People can say Valdes wouldn’t be stepping up like he is now but he wouldn’t have to. I really think Fotu was set for breakout year with Standhardinger out. Plus, the UH bumblers and fumblers in the athletic department dont realize how big Fotu was for the fans. You know, not that many UH athletes can walk around Ala Moana and all the local people recognize him right away. Fotu, everybody knew who he was as soon as you see him and not only because of the big hair but because he was fantastic player!
So sad that his parents being kept in the dark of everything. Auwe! Oh well no use crying about it now because the team is doing great.
Chuck….Power that be..controlling hiring firing…AD? (JP and JW?)
That is the way..even Laura Beeman allude to on Leahy’s show…know…things challenging athletic dept..screwy I think..she and Benjy plus Mamma Valdes , all the parents and the core 3000 come to every home MBB game…Just support teams..
and WBB and MBB teams play hard win for Hawaii and fans..
Jeff…lot of i put past 30 years..hope he is right..
Go Bows!!
As Benjy says in above video guys and he just concentrate on season and winning getting better..what else can he, team or we do?
Would knock me off my chair if things were not as bad as seemed
Dang politics in Hawaii going on 56 years!!
🙂
Sorry about Isaac Fotu…know he loves his ex teammates and Hawaii..poke bowls
if truth and things come out coaches and Fotu clear names, good
However all about student athletes
Isaac the legacy..he played 2 years at Hawaii then went pro.
Tonganator and family hope your ohana alright
send aloha to Isaac, Ella , Daniel, Mamma Fotu and whole family!!
GoBows!!
Go Warriors
they, the 15 current moved on and are playing really well!!
🙂
ChuckCheese, RunBows and all die hard UHMBB fans.
The team is doing great, and I am happy the boys are winning and I am sure Isaac is following his brothers closely. I will continue to support the team.
We are planning ton catch up with the Valdes Ohana when we are in LA next year. We have become good friends and that’s what sports do, bring people together and friendship develops that last a long time.
Looking forward for another win against BYU.
GO THE MIGHTY WARRIORS