Last call for the home bandwagon
Believe it or not, this is the last week of scheduled home games in what has become an almost-unbelievable season for the University of Hawai’i basketball team.
The Warriors will host UC Riverside on Thursday and CSUN on Saturday. Both games will start at 7:00 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Two victories by Hawai’i this week will clinch at least a share of the Big West Conference regular-season championship, with two more road games remaining next week.
“I would think there would be a good turnout for them, as there should be, for all they’ve been through and all they represent,” head coach Eran Ganot said. “And then you come in with, it’s Senior Night. We got great seniors who sacrificed a lot for this program and given us all some great moments and hopefully some more moments. Add that with some key conference games. So a lot on the line.”
For historical reference, UH basketball has been affiliated with conferences for 37 previous seasons (33 with the Western Athletic Conference, and four in the Big West), and have only two regular-season titles to show for it (1998 and 2002).
In short, this is very rare chance to see history in the making.
Hawai’i is 22-3 overall and alone atop the Big West at 11-1. UC Irvine and Long Beach State are tied for second place at 9-3, and will play each other on Wednesday (meaning one of them will drop to four losses).
The Warriors already own road victories at UC Riverside and at CSUN.
First up on Thursday is a UC Riverside team that is 13-15 overall and in seventh place in the Big West at 4-8. The Highlanders are going through recent turmoil, as top player Taylor Johns was dismissed from the team last week for a violation of team and athletic department rules.
Johns, a 6-foot-7 senior forward, was averaging 15.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. He was a first-team All-Big West Conference selection last season. He had his worst game of the season in the first meeting with Hawai’i, finishing with five points and four rebounds before fouling out.
Without Johns, the Highlanders are still a dangerous team, primarily because they have one of the nation’s top shooters in senior guard Jaylen Bland. He ranks fourth in the nation with 100 3-pointers, and is third in the Big West in scoring at 16.3 points per game. He scored 22 in the loss to Hawai’i last month.
Regardless of what happens on Thursday, Saturday’s game against CSUN will be “Senior Night” for the Warriors and a “White-Out” game at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Seniors Roderick Bobbitt, Quincy Smith and Sai Tummala will be honored after the game, along with junior Dyrbe Enos (who said he will graduate from UH this Spring).
Despite the team’s successful run through the regular-season, there has been only one sellout so far (on January 30 against Long Beach State). The Warriors said they would enjoy playing before two more capacity crowds to close the home schedule.
“We want it to be packed, we want to give you guys a show and thank you guys for the support all season,” Bobbitt said.
The last UH season to feature more than one sellout at the Sheriff Center was the 1997-98 team that featured seniors Anthony Carter and Alika Smith.
HAWAI’I VS. UC RIVERSIDE // HAWAI’I VS. CSUN
When: vs. UC Riverside on Thursday, Feb. 25; vs. CSUN on Saturday, Feb. 27; both games start at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Stan Sheriff Center
Tickets: Lower Level – $26 for any available seats; Upper Level – $18 for adults, $16 for senior citizens (ages 65-older), $5 for students (ages 4-18). Parking is $6.
TV: Both games live on OCSports (Oceanic channels 16 and 1016 in Hawai’i)
Internet video: Live streaming on www.bigwest.tv
Radio: Both games live on ESPN 1420 AM
Internet audio: Live on www.espn1420am.com
Theme nights: Thursday is “Retro Aloha Shirt Night” and fans are encouraged to wear retro aloha shirts. Saturday is “Senior Night” and a “White-Out” – fans are encouraged to wear white shirts and stay after the game to honor the senior players.
I’m looking forward to these home games.. not looking forward to seeing the seniors go. This team is such a treat to watch. If I had a chance to go back in time and choose a college team to play with.. it would be these guys. Their comradery, character, and style of play has made me a big fan!
Go Bows!
Like perfect storm everything came together.
Timely coaching. Team bought in and executed.
Wish season started over again. Tremendous job
well done team and coach Ganot’s staff. Will be there
cheering one more time. NCAA here warriors
come!!
All They’ve been through and Hopefully Where they ARE Taking Us…
Performance, Results, Records,
Bright Futures ALL
So Deserving of Back-to-Back or Second Sell-Outs…
However Many Fans Show to See and Thank Them…
Enjoy (Probably) Your Last Two Starring Nights @ SSC
Big Mahalo for Sharing SO Much of Your Talent, Life and BB Career Here
FEEL That Deserved ALOHA This Week
Your Parents AND YOU Deserve That Never-to-be-Forgotten Standing O
I’m Glad YOU Had the Great Teammates and Supporting Cast for This Amazing Senior Season
LIKE Those HUGE North Shore Waves
Take This Program, Show YOUR Fans Success, Vistas, Places and Views They’ve NEVER Seen Before
Future Success WILL Be In Comparison to THIS Season
YOU and Your Team ARE The Stuff of Legends
MAHALO AND ALOHA,
Dyrbe, Sai, Q! And Rod !
This Season AND In Your Lives
YOU Have Shown YOU Know How to
JUST KEEP WINNING!
————-
Note to Q: See IF Kendall Realizes What YOU Got Here
‘Sometimes’ Little Brothers get Jealous
Because You’re Here I Know YOU DO
Let’s Go Bows! Let’s Go Bows! Let’s Go Bows!
Rain! —> Bows! Rain! —> Bows! Rain! —> Bows!
One game at a time, as tournament time is almost here.
Congrats to the seniors and all the team.
Go Bows !
Stealing the ball and causing turnovers is not the main point of a good defense, per Eran on Call the Coach. It’s a balance with guarding your man, and causing the opponent to shoot a low %. Trying to steal the ball can sometimes cause you to lose your man and also lead to fouls called (but as bradahman stated, a steal can change the momentum of a game, etc).
UH is 2nd in 3PT FG% defense in conference games, holding opponents to 27.7 % and 2nd in overall FG% defense, 40.1 %.
On Offense, UH is 7th in 3PT FG% at 33.3 % but 2nd in overall FG% at 44.5 % in conference games.
On FT’s UH is 3rd at 71 % in conference games. LBSU and Irvine are 8th and 9th, 67.5 and 66.7.
I’m gonna jump to the chase here…there’s a very distinct possibility that Hawaii can earn at large berth to the NCAA tournament. Odds are in their favor to win out the rest of the regular season, which would bring them to 26 – 3. As the top seed in the BW tournament, they’d be in prime position to at least make the conference championship. Even if they lost that game, that would put them at 28 – 4 and an RPI ~60. That many wins is very hard to ignore, even for the NCAA selection committee. According to Teamrankings.com, teams that have 28 wins have a 77.7% chance to make the big dance.
As it is now, they have Hawaii at a 46.9% chance to make the tournament (10.5% of that is at-large) and most likely a 12 seed. At this point in the season, anything less than the big dance would be somewhat disappointing. I have complete faith in the talent of the players and the guidance of the coaching staff to get us there for the first time in 15 years! That being said, I’d still be stoked to see an NIT game or two here on Oahu. In the meantime, these last 2 home games this week are more than deserving of complete sell-outs! Looking forward to continued conference domination. Let’s GO BOWS!!!!
^^^ You are looking way ahead IsaacM but I think your idea of winning all the games to the Big West championship is the only way UH gets at large. That means they have to win six more in row to get to the championship game and that is no guarantee, especially the last game at Beach. Even the road game before that at Davis will be tough. I think one loss kills any chance for at large.
You also have to consider about who UH might lose to in the championship. If it is Irvine or Beach, then UH still get chance for at large. If somebody like Cal Poly comes out of nowhere and upsets everybody like couple years ago that could really screw it up.
UH has many wins, but on the radio,someone said how many against teams with winning records. I didn’t check all but three are Coastal, Nevada and UNI plus some in the Big West. None against 1 to 50 rpi rank teams. Monmouth has 2 wins vs 1 to 50 rpi teams.
That is dilemma of warriors playing in Big West and
weak overall SOS. Strange even if warriors beat last
eams in coference could hold them in seventies
RPI because opponents low rankings. Don’t leave to
Selection committee. UH mindset ? Get 3 wins in.
anaheim !
And mcaa bid guaranteed! NCAA never does UH favors
through the years. Even losing a game before Big West
Tournament not as bad as losing any one game in
anaheim. Go warriors!!’
As impressive as winning possibly 26 to 28 wins, you have to look at who we lost to. We lost to Oklahoma by 3 in the DHC, Oklahoma is projected to be one of the 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. We lost to Texas Tech by 8 in Lubbock. Tech is projected to be in the field for the NCAA tournament. We lost to Long Beach here. The 14 point loss is very deceiving. Valdes coming off an injury was rusty. But the Beach is a very decent team and has played a lot of tough Power 5 teams. I think Irvine is going to beach Long Beach tonight so Hawaii will be in good position to win the regular season title as Long Beach will be out. If Long Beach wins, that would be interesting, but if we win this week and beat Davis next Thursday, the Long Beach game next Saturday would be moot. Losing to Long Beach in the finale isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s all about winning the conference tournament. You cannot depend on the NCAA selection committee. They are biased against mid-majors. You don’t want to lose to Long Beach possibly 3 times in one year either. As far as an at-large selection I think a 28-4 overall record is 50-50 to me. 28-4 means that we beat Long Beach at least once. If we don’t win one against Long Beach, but still finish 28-4 that means that we win the conference tournament. All Hawaii can do if we are not guaranteed a spot in the NCAA is to pray at the mercy of others, but hopefully they will look at some of our “good” losses and the fact that our road record will be also a plus. Whatever, we wait. In the meantime, it’s taking care of business first tomorrow. Stay locked in.
With regards to the NCAA tourney…Big West is a 1 team league. Period.
The only team with any shot at an at-large is Long Beach with their traditionally super tough non-conference schedule, but they typically don’t win any of those games so it doesn’t help them much in terms of at large chances. The BWC is so weak outside the top 2-3 that it drags down everybody’s SoS and RPI a ton.
I believe LBSU had the #1 SoS in the nation heading into BWC play but now their SoS is in the 90’s and they’ve only played conference games. It doesn’t help anybody that there are only 3 teams with +.500 records overall.
Re: Big West being weak, it is ranked No.15 in conference RPI, just under the West Coast which is ranked 14th this year on one rating service. The West Coast had two teams in the 2015 NCAA’s, Gonzaga and BYU. This year they are projected to have Gonzaga and maybe St. Mary’s in.
Given the history of mid majors with impressive records getting snubbed, and UHs likely RPI in the 60s even if it wins out but loses in the conference tourney finals, I find an at large bid very unlikely.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/2015/story/_/id/12491646/colorado-state-temple-murray-state-snubbed-ncaa-tournament-selection-committee
It is important to note that hypothetically if UH wins out but loses in the conference finals, its record would be 26-4 for NCAA tournament resume purposes because the two wins against Div. 2 schools wouldn’t count. So the team would have a great record, but not the best one to ever be snubbed.
Respectfully, it’s too early for speculative discussion about at-large bids. The farthest I can look ahead is Saturday (which, by the way, already is looking like a sellout). An Irvine win tonight, and two more UH victories gives the Warriors the outright BW title and the NIT bid. That, in itself, would be a heck of an accomplishment for this team.
Monmouth also has 4 losses against RPI 100+ and 200+ teams, including a double-digit loss to an RPI #231 Canisius squad. UH has zero losses to RPI 100+ teams. Monmouth also got smoked at home last week against a 16-10 Iona squad. I wouldn’t consider their two top 50 RPI wins specifically impressive, as both Notre Dame and USC have 8 losses. They don’t deserve an at-large bid but if they do win their conference tourney I’ll have them as one-and-done in all my brackets.
I still feel like we would deserve an at large bid if we win out the regular season and make it to the conference championship and maybe losing at the buzzer. I doubt any other team in the country will be 28-4 at that point and historically 78% of teams with that many wins will make the NCAA tournament.
I’m not the only one who thinks this either, ESPN has them on the mid-major bubble watch: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bubblewatch
Does the RPI take into account the rank of a team that your team loses to ?
“We want it to be packed, we want to give you guys a show and thank you guys for the support all season,” Bobbitt said.
That’s exactly how I feel about this team. They want to give a show, but the first time against Long Beach they didn’t know how to do it. First sellout in years. Ended up playing a non-characteristic game, and also give credit to LBSU they won that game. Team was worried too much about putting on a show. But two weeks ago, this team learned. Just play their game and win: that’s the show fans want to see. That’s the show which will get them noticed.
The circle jerk that is the RPI is this: the teams that are ranked in preseason come from Power 5 conferences. So they start with inflated RPI ratings. Then they play cupcake preseason schedules or load into tournaments with other ranked teams, to preserve their RPI. Then the Power 5 teams get to conference with inflated RPI, and win or lose they stay inflated.
I wonder if non-conference should happen AFTER conference schedule and rankings not start until at least mid-point of the early conference season.
Great Job Jank!! Just Win Bows!!
Let’s go for standing room only Bows Fans!
NIT IS A Huge (For UH, Recent History) Accomplishment;
NCAA Has BAD Track Record w.r.t. Hawai’i
THINK About WHO ‘These Guys’ ARE…(Selection Committee)
Big Five Conference AD’s / Coaches / Retirees from Conferences That GET PAID MORE,
AND EARN MORE Street Cred Versus ACC, BIG 12, etc. By Having, 5, 6, 7? Teams in NCAA
Don’t Expect Any Favors to be Sent to The Middle of the Pacific Ocean (Out-of-Sight, Out-of-Mind)…
EVEN IF Some “Really Like” Eran Ganot….
IF there WEREN’T ANY Ex-Coaches, Would They Even Consider Awarding A Coveted At-Large Invite to A Team Appealing Post-Season Eligibility Next Season?
IF UH CANNOT WIN THREE Against the Likes of The Big West…
The Perception Will Be that they Have Not Earned A Ticket to The Dance
NOT Any More Than UC-Davis …
WHO? Last Year’s Regular Season Champ that #123 Hawai’i Knocked Out in the BWC Semis
CAN Lock Up NIT
That’s a Blessing
And WE Have Our Tickets to Anaheim
BUT ‘Bows Would Have to BEAT The ODDS [AGAIN! ;-}
4 of Last 5 BWC Regular Season Champs DID NOT WIN BWC Tourney…
Looking Ahead — I Think That’s Part of What This Site IS For…
BUT
FOR ‘BOWS:
As Usual, SHOW UP READY TO PLAY 40+ and…
AS Oakland “IN THE HOUSE!” Would Say,
JUST KEEP WINNIN’!!!.!!!
(NOTE: One Exclamation Point for EVERY WIN TO “LOCK” An NIT AND NCAA Automatic BID…)
RPI?
I Would Welcome ANY Mathemetician’s OR Politician’s or Administrator’s Well-Thought Out Explanation:
MY THOUGHTS:
I Have Taken Math through 400, 500, 600 Levels (@ UH)
There IS NO-BASIS For TRIPLE-Counting
TRIPLE-CREDITING Is Just Big Five OLD BOYZ Club (Keep Them Out) Games
Should Be Played Straight
Beat Better Teams, Get More Credit….
I Can (Also) ‘Conscience’ “Credit” for Scheduling (AND LOSING) to Better Teams
That’s The ‘Strength of Schedule’ (SOS) Argument
BUT Even Without SOS, The Math ‘Should’ Work…
CREDIT For OPPONENT’S Strength of Schedule (In My Considered Opinion) Is TOTAL B.S.
That’s Also UN-American
Should WE VOTE That Way?
Well… YOU Get THREE Votes Because of Who You Hang Out With…
Ok, before anymore speculation on RPI comes up, know this, guys:
RPI isnt a ranking. its a formula. there are no voters, no preseason rankings…the reason P5 schools inherently have higher RPIs is because they have less bottom feeders with awful non conference records to bring them down. period.