Jankovic earns Big West Player of the Week
University of Hawai’i big man Stefan Jankovic came up big on the road last week, and was recognized for it with the Big West Conference Player of the Week Award.
Jankovic, a 6-foot-11 junior forward/center, averaged 17.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game to help lead the Warriors to victories at UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly. He shot 58.3 percent (14 for 24) from the field , 85.7 percent (6 for 7) on free throws, and also had five assists with just one turnover.
Jankovic had 16 points and 10 rebounds in the win at UCSB, then tallied 19 points and nine rebounds in the win at Cal Poly. The Warriors improved to 7-1 in the Big West, and moved into a tie for first place with UC Irvine, setting up a showdown between the teams this Thursday.
Jankovic leads Hawai’i in both overall scoring at 15.3 points per game, and rebounding at 6.6 per game. He is shooting 56.1 percent from the field, 37.8 percent from 3-point range, and 75.5 percent on free throws.
This is the first Big West Player of the Week Award for Jankovic, but the fourth recognition for Hawai’i this season. Senior point guard Roderick Bobbitt won it twice (November 16 and December 28), and sophomore guard Isaac Fleming won it on January 18.
That ties the school record for most conference Player of the Week honors in a single season, held by five previous UH teams. The 1996-97, 1997-98, 2001-02 and 2011-12 teams won four Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week awards in a season; the 2013-14 team had four Big West honorees.
Here is the official release from the Big West Conference:
Junior Stefan Jankovic (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada/Missouri) averaged 17.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in a pair of crucial Hawai‘i road wins to garner his first career Big West Men’s Basketball Player of the Week honor.
The third different Rainbow Warrior this season to earn weekly honors, Jankovic just missed on back-to-back double-doubles while helping UH move into a tie for first place with UC Irvine and setting up a showdown this Thursday between the two front runners.
The 6-11 forward posted his fourth double-double of the year with 16 points and 10 rebounds in a 76-64 triumph at UC Santa Barbara. He added three assists and a blocked shot in 24 minutes of action.
In a 75-60 win at Cal Poly, Jankovic notched 19 points, nine rebounds and two assists as the ‘Bows swept the Central Coast road trip for the first time since joining the Big West in 2012-13.
Jankovic shot an identical 7-for-12 in both games and 58.3 percent overall for the week. He also made 6-of-7 free throws. Jankovic is No. 5 in the Big West in scoring (15.3 ppg), No. 6 in rebounding (6.6 rpg) and No. 3 in field goal percentage (.561).
Others nominated: Khalil Ahmad (Cal State Fullerton); Micheal Warren (CSUN); Nick Faust (Long Beach State); Brynton Lemar (UC Davis); Mamadou Ndiaye (UC Irvine); Taylor Johns (UC Riverside).
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WARRIORS RECEIVE POINTS IN AP TOP 25
The Warriors have won 10 of their last 11 games, including four straight on the road, and are again on the national radar.
Hawai’i received three points in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 Poll, which earned them a place in the “Others receiving votes” category. Hawai’i did not receive any points last week, but two road victories were enough to impress at least one voter.
All of the Warriors’ points this week came from John Feinstein of the Washington Post and National Public Radio. He placed Hawai’i at No. 23 on his ballot, good for three points.
Hawai’i did not receive any points in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
The Warriors are also continuing to climb in the national mid-major polls.
Hawai’i is at No. 7 in the College Court Report Mid-Major Top 20 Power Rankings by www.collegecourtreport.com. The only teams ranked ahead of UH in that poll are Dayton, Valparaiso, Little Rock, Saint Mary’s, Gonzaga and Chattanooga.
Hawai’i is also at No. 13 in the Mid-Major Madness Power 15 by www.midmajormadness.com, and also No. 13 in the Men’s Mid-Major Top 25 by www.collegeinsider.com.
Well deserved award, and a long time coming for our Canadian hoopster. Congrats Janks! And after only averaging 26 minutes in both of those games (one game was due to foul trouble). Way to lead the team to a pair of crucial road wins, and by double digits nonetheless!
I will say this, in all my years of being a Hawaii hoops fan (since early 90’s – Trevor Ruffin/Tony Maroney days) I don’t ever remember Hawaii going on the road in conference play and winning both games by double digits. It just doesn’t happen…but it happened last week! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…this team is special. Good offense, great defense, PLUS excellent coaching! Kudos to the team on their accomplishments and looking forward to more great things to come.
Let’s GO BOWS!!!!!!
Janks keep going strong. Goo job!
Think Rod, Quincy, Aaron, Mike, can all
be BigWest conference all league first, second
or honorable mention candidates. Oldest son
thinks Warriors might finish season 1st or 2nd
14-2 or 13-4. I hope so. Team enjoyable to watch.
Kudos to Eran and team!
Great job BOWS! This team is For Real!!
Roderick Mid Major Player of the week, Big West Player of the Week
Isaac Big West Player of the Week
Janks Big West Player of the Week
NEWS FLASH : 7th in Mid Major : 3 votes for top 25
JUST WIN BOWS!
Congratulation big fella well deserved.
Janks best big man in Big West!!!! Mr Mountie!
Janks!!! This guy has turned into a big weapon for this team. 6-11 tall and NBA range on 3 ball. He can drive past slower bigs and now he learned to play with his back to the basket. He can cause a lot of problems for a big slow guy like Mamadou but he also have to be strong on the defensive end when Mamadou get the ball.
Hey bigdaddy, how Isaac doing with his injury? We need him!
Congrats for the well deserved award, Stefan. The key for our team if for Jankovic and Thomas to stay out of foul trouble because rebounding is so big for us to consistently win big ball games, especially early foul trouble. Then Ganot has to make some adjustments that he normally wouldn’t do with his usual substitution patterns. Of course, Ganot knows this so I’m sure he’s coaching the players to move their feet for better positioning and harp on being smart and not make silly fouls like reaching. No problem in going over fundamentals and it’s importance. You just want a solid basketball team that is disciplined and play hard. You can live with the results.
Well deserved award for Janks !
Go Bows !!
Bigdaddy, our family likes Isaac. Smooth, athlete.
Big time guard. He , when healed ,
key to Big west conference championship.
The bigs and smalls , need to step up
up, get ready for tournament. Speedy recovery
Isaac, another all Big West first team candidate
of 5 or 6 warriors !!
Not to crush anyone’s hopes, but is bigdaddy even allowed to talk about Isaac’s injury? Arent there rules in place about medical info?
Janks is our secret weapon -not so secret anymore he’s on everyone’s radar. 6’11” with NBA range, we are lucky to have him. Team player and quick, versatile… He’s not one of those slow big guys like UC Irvine Center…Not frequently do you see a guy this big do great things outside of the paint like he does. Hands down
BWC will be ours!!
NCAA tourney here we come!!
go bowsssss!!!!
Realistically, we are lucky to have Bobbitt, Flemming, Janks, and Valdez as I think all four of those guys could be starters on most D1 teams in the country. Thomas and Q are great role players too that get the job done most times.
Strategy for Irvine, forget about Hack-a-Dou.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om3EyXckbOk
kaneohe97,
you’re right, they could be starters on most D1 teams, but it’s thanks in part to how they’ve developed at UH, especially under Ganot. There’s a noticeable improvement in those guys compared to last year.
Note, there was a noticeable improvement for Valdes, Thomas and Stef from their freshman year to their soph year last season too.
UHfanzonly1 = Team1st
I’ve been an English teacher for over 20 years. It was too easy.
njacinto, i was going to comment on your detective work several posts ago.
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Here’s a scouting film on Ndiaye, he can receive passe, dunk, rebound, goes on a somewhat fast break, does a pick and roll. He’s not as slow as some may think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoyvCj1O_oM
Islandman… Ndiaye Mamadou is fast from end to end, basket to basket, but he’s not as quick as most people think while guarding the post. You can maneuver him underneath. Quincy and Fleming are quick enough to force him to commit. You can kind of twist him around…
I’d give Mamadou his 14 points or so a game and not worry too much about him. As long as the bigs front him he will have to earn his points. If he gets the ball down low let him dunk it and save your fouls. You ain’t gonna stop him anyway. UH should focus on beating the team as a whole and not concentrating on any one guy.
Team 1st alias Cp3 alias UHFanz 1. You are so busted. Get off the blog Start your own website and create your own blog.
Agreed,
UHFANZONLY1 is definitely Team1st.
I believe, in the past 4 seasons, that is about the guy’s 6th alias. It’s a little ridiculous.
Anyway, congrats Janks, you’re a true competitor and a great man off the court!
Islandman, yeah, of course there was an improvement between freshman and sophomore years. And it came down simply to getting more playing time. Gib really didn’t give Valdes the time of day, was too severe with Thomas (subbed him out and yelled at him every time he made a mistake), and Stef was third choice to Fotu (rightfully so) and Rozitis (Gib’s bae from USC days).
Blackout night for family? Should be fun!
Do not know if sellout yet, however, our family
ready to rock Stan Sheriff Center! Should be fun.
Like AC and Alika days! Go Warriors!
Mamadou’s presence in the post on defense is worrisome. He had eight blocks in last week’s game, and four came in the 5-minute overtime period. And you can bet he altered as many shots, too. He is quite agile for someone who is 7 feet 6 and 300 pounds. Definitely, not a “statue of limitations” (was that Seth Sundberg’s nickname?)
If Janks can consistently hit a medium-range jumper from along the baseline, it will draw Mamadou from the post and open cutting lanes to the basket for Quincy and Aaron. Fotu put on a clinic against Irvine two years ago, burying jumper after jumper for 30 points or so. Hopefully, Janks can do the same.
I think it’s a wash at the other four spots. Nelson can be scary productive, but so can just about anyone in Hawaii’s rotation. Ought to be a great game. Hope it’s a sellout; more $$ for the coffers.
Wow. So alll along this guy has been thanking Dayton, but now ignores his requests. What respect.
Congrats Janks! U deserve it!!!!
BLATANTLY ignoring Dayton’s requests
Pretty sure Coaching staff has got a plan for Thursday. But its the long term plan that counts. If what works tomorrow doesn’t work come tournament time, none of us will feel good about it.
But if I were to guess, and if any team can make the simple plan work it would be UH, then simply front the big guy all day long, clog the middle, and let our guards try to steal it whenever he turns or tries to pass the ball. They know its coming. We know they know its coming. Its just a matter of execution and at the same time not letting the shooters get an open look.
Congratulations, Janks!
Great Road Performances
That Contributed to Total TEAM Success
And Second Road Sweep
NOW ALL Pull Together
For Thursday WIN
(And Another Week’s Sweep!)
Good Point on Long-Term Plan
This is (Up To) A Three-Game Series
We Play Irvine Again Next Saturday
Then Need to Win Any and ALL Third Meetings In Anaheim
I’d Suspect Coaching Staff’s Approach is to Disclose Weaknesses
That They CAN Exploit When they Need To
Yet Try to Reach Wins And Dominance Within System
Would Love to Understand Coaching Staff’s Approach
To Three-Game Series
But that’s probably Closely-Held ‘Secret’
Visible Results
WIN THURSDAY!
(Win Saturday!)
Win Two Again Next Week
GO ‘Bows!
Irvine uses a zone, so i do not see Marmaduke being drawn out. As for the guards, Irvine does not get enough credit, Luke Nelson can play! No Davis III this year tho. Hawaii will need its A game to win. Irvine is the best at the zone in our league, and we have been less productive when facing the zone. (kind of funny that Long Beach is our only loss and they played the least zone)
Yes, the Irvine zone is holding big west opponents to 35.6 FG %, 29.8 3pt FG % and 62.4 pts per game.
How does a 6-11 player defend against a 7-6 one ? That’s like a 5-7 player against a 6-2 player, maybe it’s not that bad.
Coach Laura put Bobby in his place, said she does not agree with him that the women’s game should start at an earlier time like 4 pm. He had said he’s not letting his children attend the men’s game that starts at 8 pm on a school night. She said the time is good on TV for her recruiting in Hawaii and also the time is good for Oceanic,etc.
Any team with a 7-6 center with the arm length of Mamadou has to play zone because he is the true meaning of a rim protector. Many others already said that the key for UH will be making outside shots and mid-range shots. When UH beat UCI couple years ago it was Fotu hitting all the mid-range shots in the areas that Mamadou couldn’t move out to cover. Either Janks or Mike Thomas or both of them have to do that this time.
The UCI guards got credit on the ESPN broadcast when they said Nelson and Young was the best backcourt in the Big West and UH was second.
Good points, also Nelson and Young seem to always play well vs. UH. Can UH drive in and then pass off for some “easy” baskets inside ?
Today’s paper said Isaac is questionable for the Irvine game.
Well we can look at it this way..whatever Cal Poly did, they should have beat Irvine in regulation of not for that prayer three which was set up good by the way..We went into Poly and won by double digits..So this team is beatable.. the only team that scared me from the start of the season is Long Beach…but you take away Faust and they’re really nothing…Maybe we should attck Mamadou with pump fakes and try to get him in early foul trouble
Roga dat Gman23
Mamadou will get a lot of blocks but some of them will be fouls too. I’d go strong and take it right to him. Quincy can do it and survive his lumps, although he’s not the best man on the foul line. But main thing is get the big Mama in foul trouble.
Definitely “Beatable”
NEW Improved UH System
HOWEVER: Near-Term Record:
ONLY Hawai’i Win (Two-Years Ago) was the Miracle Shamburger Shot
Otherwise Woulda Been FIVE Straight by Irvine
2015: UCI By 6, 15, 9
2014: Split, Both 4-points in Ô.T.
STEP-UP AGAIN!
Best Backcourt?
Best Frontcourt?
Go ‘Bows!
I hope Team 1st listens to Dayton’s wishes. This blog is so much better without his non sense.
Besides Cal Poly, look at what UCSB did to win at Irvine. From the stats, UCSB had 20 assists to only 8 TO’s. Irvine had 9 assists to 15 TO’s. Rebounds and blocks were about even. UCSB had 9 steals to 3 for UCI.
UCSB had 5 more FG’s plus made 4 more FT’s. Final score 76-60.
The difference between 2013-14 and 2014-15, compared to this year is that Will Davis is gone. He was so huge for Irvine, an All Big West performer. I just think he’s a big loss for them and therefore I also think that Hawaii has a great chance to turn the tables this year. We have a better coaching staff now, improved players such as Jankovic and more and we are at home, supposedly an advantage there. Hawaii has to play better in front of a big crowd. Hopefully the Long Beach loss was a very good lesson. The Wizard of Westwood is a great reminder, “Be quick, but don’t rush.” I’ll go with our Warriors, 75-69.
Congrats to Janks. Continue to improve and you have a great chance to play professionally somewhere and hope it is the NBA for you.
Is it not a fact that the head coach is responsible for his coaches wrongdoings and is ultimately responsible for what goes on. Not knowing is like not asking questions of what is this or what is that, turning your cheek and being oblivious.
Gib getting a 3 year sentence not able to coach at any NCAA institution and the Syracuse coach getting what a 9 game suspension for their violations. Pitino possibly getting off the hook and being exonerated because he did not know anything of this sex scandal party. The North Carolina coaches potentially all being cleared cause they also did not know of this bogus class.
UH be sure to have this postseason ban implemented by the NCAA removed no later than the end of May for the crime does not fit the penalty. Prove to them that if they are to serve a 1 year post season band schools like Syracuse and the potential judgement of Louisville and North Carolina should have their titles taken away from them, postseason money returned and postseason band of 3 years handed down. If not file a lawsuit against the NCAA for discrimination and unfair business practices. Again the penalty does not fit the crime.
If memory serves me (which it doesn’t very well anymore), Luke Wilson killed us last year. I thought he was gone but apparently not, darn. We didn’t have to play against the big guy til the tournament because he was out all season, I think. And we had his number the first half, our guards were too quick and he would commit to one and the other would take it to him. They had to take him out. But in the second half, the refs started pandering to his cry babying over being fouled…that’s how I remember it anyway…and he is a pretty good foul shooter. I remember we got so cold shooting the 3, but I also remember being super agitated with the refs. Of course, we were losing our big lead so maybe I was looking to blame someone.
I think we have matured a great deal. The boys (young men) have improved their skills, this coaching staff seems to have brought more discipline ON the court in terms of playing style. Taking the lead, keeping the lead, closing out the lead…these are all the things this team has shown they are capable of doing. I feel strongly that we will win on Thursday. I believe!
Eh, if Eddie Aikau were still alive, after surfing the big waves tomorrow, EDDIE WOULD GO to UH Wahine and Men’s Basketball on Thursday…guarantee brah.
Syracuse incurred most of their violations before the new NCAA penalty structure was approved on Oct 31, 2012, so they were subject to the more lenient sanctions under the old structure, according to their NCAA decision. Sanctions included vacating 108 wins in 2004-05, 05-06,06-07,2010-11 and 2011-12. Returning all NCAA tournament appearance money in 2011,2012 and 2013. Loss of 12 scholarships for 4 years, but reduced on appeal to 8 . One year post season ban.
The NCAA will probably say N Carolina’s violations were also subject to the old penalty structure.
UH was charged with a Level II-Aggravated case so according to the new penalty matrix they are subject to at least a one year post season ban. Because supposedly most of their violations occurred after the new violation structure was approved ( note, the new structure went into effect on Aug 1, 2013 ).
https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/Att2_Penalty%2BGuideline%2BMatrix%2B%28Version%2B6%29_101212.pdf
How many times have we had 3 Big West Players of the week in one season?
KelleyO it’s Luke Nelson and yes he is a hell of a player.
oakland510 …. from story above, “the 2013-14 team had four Big West honorees.”
(Spearman, Shamburger, Standhardinger 2 times)
PONO, aya! Thank you…basketball player not comedian.
Chuckcheese , Isaac is not happy I told him if your not 90 to 100% do not play support your team from the bench the reward is not greater than the risk.[ next man up ]
Good advice. Playing hurt is how you risk greater injury. It’s a sprained ankle now, but playing hurt leaves you at risk for far worse things. He’s a good dude, hate to see him miss even more time just to risk playing a regular season game, no matter how important.
Notes from McInnis… Isaac looks closer to returning. Game may bea possible sell-out. Valdes closer to 6-5, meaning he had a haircut.
Thanks for the update BigDaddy, let him know that we wish him well! It must be very hard to see everything be else play and not be able to!!! Isaac is a player and wants to be in the moment, for those that don’t understand it’s like when you were a kid and the family gets a new row like Atari for the old folks or play station for the newer and your not allowed to play it while everyone else gets to. Frustrating and heartbreaking all rolled into one!!!! Good luck
Thanks Islandman
bigdaddy,
great advice. Wishing Isaac a speedy recovery.