Regular-season title and road win streak on the line at UC Davis
It is now March, which means it is time for the Madness to begin. For the University of Hawai’i basketball team, this first week of March is all about the chase for the Big West Conference regular-season championship.
Hawai’i will play at UC Davis on Thursday, and a victory by the Warriors will secure the program’s third regular-season title in 37 seasons of conference affiliation. The game is scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m. at The Pavilion in Davis, Calif.
Hawai’i is 23-4 overall and alone atop the Big West at 12-2. That record includes an amazing 6-0 record in conference road games. UC Davis is 10-17 and 5-9, including a 78-62 loss at Hawai’i on January 23.
Much has changed since that game last month. Most notable, sophomore guard Isaac Fleming received an official release from the program this week. He started the previous game against UC Davis, and responded with 13 points and four assists in 36 minutes.
Fleming started that game because junior forward Aaron Valdes was out with a turf toe injury. Valdes is now at full strength, and freshman Sheriff Drammeh has emerged as a key reserve in recent weeks.
The Warriors still have conference Player of the Year candidates in senior point guard Roderick Bobbitt and junior center Stefan Jankovic.
Bobbitt is averaging 13.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, and leads the Big West in assists (5.7) and steals (2.2). He is three steals away from becoming UH’s all-time leader in steals (he is currently at 158; Tom Henderson had 160 from 1972-74). In the previous win over UC Davis, Bobbitt had nine points, seven assists and four steals and three rebounds.
Jankovic is averaging team-highs of 16.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, and also leads the team with a .574 field goal percentage. He had 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting and eight rebounds in the win over UC Davis.
Valdes is averaging 14.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Since returning to the lineup from his toe injury, Valdes is averaging 15.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in the seven games he has started.
Senior guard Quincy Smith is averaging 7.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game; junior forward Mike Thomas is contributing 7.5 points and 5.3 rebounds per game; senior forward Sai Tummala is averaging 6.7 points per game and is shooting 43.5 percent from 3-point range.
UC Davis, which won the Big West regular-season title last year, is on a five-game losing streak, although those five losses have been by an average of 5.6 points per game. Most significant, the Aggies are coming off a heartbreaking 62-61 loss to UC Irvine last Saturday.
The Aggies’ all-conference candidate is 6-foot-6 senior forward Josh Fox, who is averaging 14.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, and has a .516 field goal percentage. He tallied 25 points and eight rebounds in the loss at Hawai’i in January.
The Aggies rely on a balanced and deliberate offense. Darius Graham, a 5-10 junior guard, is averaging 9.9 points per game and leads the team with 44 3-pointers. Brynton Lemar, a 6-4 junior guard, is averaging 9.8 points per game. Siler Schneider, a 6-3 freshman guard, is averaging 9.4 points per game.
Neal Monson, a 6-10 junior center, is averaging 8.4 points per game and leads the Big West in rebounding at 8.4 per game.
While Hawai’i’s depth took a hit with the departure of Fleming, UC Davis has been dealing with it all season. The Aggies normally use just seven players in their main rotation, and the five starters all average more than 30 minutes per game in Big West action.
The Aggies like to slow the pace of games, and rank last in the Big West in scoring offense at 63.0 points per game. They also rank first in opponent points allowed at 64.6 per game.
In contrast, Hawai’i leads the Big West in scoring at 78.4 points per game and in field goal percentage at .462. The 78 points scored by the Warriors in the previous meeting with UC Davis is the most points the Aggies have surrendered to a Big West opponent this season.
While UC Davis is well out of the running for a top four seed at the Big West Tournament, the Aggies are still playing for positioning in the final standings. They could finish as the No. 5, No. 6 or No. 7 seed for the tournament, pending this week’s outcomes. What’s more, Thursday is UC Davis’ “Senior Night” at The Pavilion.
HAWAI’I AT UC DAVIS
When: Thursday, March 3, 5:00 p.m. (Hawai’i time)
Where: The Pavilion, Davis, Calif.
TV: None
Internet video: Live streaming on www.bigwest.tv
Radio: Live on ESPN 1420 AM
Internet audio: Live streaming on www.espn1420am.com
Wednesday’s Big West Result
Long Beach State 75, at Cal State Fullerton 73
Thursday’s Big West Games
UC Riverside at UC Santa Barbara
Hawai’i at UC Davis, 5:00 p.m. (Hawai’i time)
Cal Poly at UC Irvine
Saturday’s Big West Games
UC Irvine at UC Riverside
Hawai’i at Long Beach State, 2:00 p.m. (Hawai’i time), Fox Sports Prime Ticket
Cal Poly at UC Santa Barbara
UC Davis at CSUN
Hope good game. Warriors should win by 20 or more. Too much defense. Athleticism and scoring.
lol, I hope you’re not serious..When was the last time Hawaii won by 20 or more on the road ever? The point spread is Hawaii -8, where do you figure your outcome from? Davis only allows opponents to score 64.6ppg, and in their last four games no opponent has scored more than 62pts. But OK, I will give you credit if we do blow Davis out by 20 on the road lol..one can hope
Go ‘Bows!
Team1st, stop jinxing our team!
Team1st (aka UHfansonly1), up to your same ol’ antics again. I’m surprised you still here.
Aka playhoopsa haha
People like him usually get banned but since he makes donations to keep this blog going he can say whatever he likes. No can help just gotta ignore what he says
Team1st gets scolded and banned from time to time, but he comes up with different names like CP3ball, uhfanzonly, Runbows… just so he can make anti-Ganot comments and get people riled up. Another technique he has is to make unrealistic predictions so if the team loses or doesn’t cover his prediction, he can spew more venom on Ganot. The stuff he spews on WSN Ohana as CP3ball is always pro-Benjy, but NO ONE there agrees with his posts.
Don’t forget Team1st’s new anti-Ganot-spewing-propaganda- alter-ego, “Mr. Bill!”
Anyway, I think Quincy has a big game here against Davis’ guards. And Rod is due for a good shooting night.
Just Win Bows!
You good enuff to created your opportunities now again, can you finish?
Just Win Bows
The way I see it, tonight is a ‘must-win’ for the ‘Bows. A win tonight would lock them up as regular season champs and secure at the LEAST, a post-season NIT berth. Of course, the goal is NCAA’s, but things tend to come easier when you have less to worry about. By that, I mean that I think a victory today would lead to a more likely win at Long Beach St. and increased chance at making a run in the conference tournament. The 8 point spread does seem a bit high, but UH’s average margin of victory on the road in conference has been 9…to average nearly double digit point victories on the road in conference….just amazing. UC Davis is a decent team and I’m sure they’ll keep it close most of the way (as they did in our house) but I have full confidence that we’ll come out with the W. Should be an awesome game! Let’s GO BOWS!
Big day! We really don’t need this to come down to the Long Beach game. Beat UCD and celebrate! Then can just relax and go beat Long Beach for revenge. LEts Go Bows!
Agree ChuckCheese! Let’s do this Bows! One game at a time
WIN THIS ONE…
[Then WE CAN ALL Enjoy Beating Up LBSU
And They Can KNOW They ARE NOT Relevant
I PLAN To YELL That to The Normally-RUDE LBSU Fans @ Anaheim
IF/WHEN WE WIN One (and More) This Week,
We Probably Wouldn’t Face LBSU (Or Irvine) Until Championship Game]
Have a HOT Night,
BUT No Matter, HOW
Just WIN TODAY, ‘BOWS!
Then Just Keep Winnin’
GO ‘BOWS!
How can you donate to this site to keep it running? I will donate to ban Team 1st and all his other aliases from this site.
Hope Big. West TV stream is good. Hope Davis make it competitive better prepare warriors for tournament.
Wife and 2 teens will be cheering on team.
Warriors just battle!!
Team1st…. So, you’re like 90 years old and you have teen kids? Mail order bride?
Kaimukian: Come on now, you should know by now not to take anything Team1st says seriously, LOL. He just spews stuff out of his okole but he seems like a legit UH fan so I’ll give him a pass, haha
S23A. Sure, Team1st has a ton of aliases (who can even keep track of them lol) but I highly doubt he is also behind “Mr. Bill”. There’s a pattern if you haven’t noticed by his grammer and style of writing and they all match up, eg. Team1st, UHfanzonly1, CP3ball, very obvious bad grammer style. Mr. Bill’s style of writing is completely different. Either way, I don’t know why anyone even pays attention to him. That’s what he wants, the attention. If we just ignore his comments then maybe he won’t post as much ridicuous stuff. I doubt he’ll ever go away but we can only hope, haha. j/k
Or Team1st can just keep it short and sweet like Bobbitts dad Oakland510 and comment, “Just win bows!”
That way his mouth can’t get him into trouble, lol.
Just win warriors!! All us want banner! Windward side!
Don’t feed the troll. Just ignore him. I stopped reading his posts a long, long time ago.
Oakland enjoy game. Win Bows! Bottom line. Warrior nation united!
Woo Hoo!!! one hour until gametime!!! Go Warriors!!! Get the Prize!!!
Janks and Bobbit foul trouble early..battled back from 16 down to take lead briefly, then Davis goes on a run to go up 11 at the half..Not looking good for the Bows 🙁
Bows playing horrible. Turn-overs, no rebounding and defense isn’t there. Sorry to you Drammeh lovers but he’s simply playing terrible. He can’t play defense, no offense at all and picking up silly fouls.
Who said we don’t miss Flemings offensive boost off the bench? Anyway, we will get blown out if Bobbitt and Janks don’t stay out of foul trouble and keep turning the ball over.
One word: karma
Sure would be nice to have a back up guard that can dribble or score…there’s a great lefty one sitting at home watching and laughing his ass off…
Need to step it up second half.
These past few games we have not taken care of the ball well…Q has 4 turnover and Bobbit has a few too..We are now turning the ball over more than our opponents..Valdes not a factor at all in 1st half…too much relying on 3 pointer
6-0 run out the gate…let’s do this!
WeBleedGreen – Let me finish it for you….. Is a B-atch
2 others players leave the court after the loss to Riverside and go straight to the locker room. No penalties, made to sit on the bench, or told that they weren’t going on the trip. Double standard?
And Bobby Curran says that his replacement can play good D? C’mon.
We never wish bad on this team, but more the actions of a young inexperienced hc who lacks compassion or the willingness to work harder with players that may need more coaching. Maybe he doesn’t know how to do that.
why aren’t they trying to post Janks up down low? He can take on Fox and their center. If anything Janks could try to get fouled. This is ridiculous. I don’t see the fire in the team like earlier in the season. WTF. Wrong time to start going on a down-slide right before the BWT.
The team just doesn’t seem like the same team as before… Sure as heck not playing like a NCAA tournament ready team.
They adjusted at halftime and came back to win the game. League champs is all that matters. Go Bows.
Rod and Janks were in foul trouble and couldn’t get into their rhythm, but Jovanovic and Tummala stepped up with scoring and we pick up a league title. Well done boys. They weren’t at their best but still found a way to grind out a win.
OMG, I thank you very much!
JUST WIN ‘BOWS!
WAY TO WIN, CHAMPS!
Win Very Ugly
WIN Tough
WIN Gutsy
Become This Year’s CHAMPS By Beating Last Year’s Champs
AT UCDavis!
7-0 BWC Road Warriors!
AWWW…Go BEAT The Beach for The ROAD SWEEP!
LOCKED UP The NIT
Consolation Is IN…
Beach!
Here Come THE CHAMPS
Congratulations, ‘Bows!
‘THE’ JUST WIN, ‘BOWS!
Unbelievable!! I thought they were done!!…Way to battle back..Conference tournament gonna be tough…Long Beach gonna be tough on Saturday as well
Whew! BWC Champions! We played terrible, in fact most of the bad plays came from our best players. But they came through when it counted. That is why we play 2 halves. For the degenerate gamblers we did not cover but we celebrate and we have post season to enjoy as fans, Congratulations coaches, players, and loyal fans….hell even the bandwagon ones too! Go Warriors!!!
UCSB is playing good basketball at the moment…I hope we can finish strong!!
Congratulations Warriors! First Big West regular season championship banner to hang in Stan Sheriff Center! Only concern. The bottom tier teams giving warriors hard time. Free throws have to make. Warriors should have won double digits. LBSU vs UH a war! Big West touney up for grabs. Whomever hot!!
Mr. Bill and Team1st… who are both the same person… please don’t come here with your negativity and concerns… stay off this board.
njacinto: I really don’t think Mr. Bill and Team1st are the same person. If anything I think Eagle is the same as Team1st.
Anyway, I’ll admit that I thought by the way UH was playing they were going to lose for sure. I admit I need to have more faith in this team as it seems this team could be destined to win the NCAA bid this year. Still, UH can’t afford to play as lousy against a good LB team at LB.
Also,sorry if this sounds negative to some who can’t handle negativity on here but what is this talk about Javanovich coming off the bench to help UH win tonight? Uhhh no! I don’t think so. Were we watching the same game? He was getting schooled on defense and wasn’t blocking out properly. Oh yeah, don’t get me started on Drammeh again. I just cringe every time I see him jump off the bench to come in…no not cringe, more like shake my head in bewilderment. I would rather see Nikko or Tummala come in instead of him…hell, I’d rather see Dyrbe or Buscher….yeah, I’m being dead serious.
I am just happy and grateful that the team gutted it out as they have been doing all year and squeaked out a win. It definitely wasn’t pretty, but celebrating on Davis’s home Court after the game was definitely pretty 🙂 we have a lot to work on if we hope to win the tournament.
Next up, long Beach for revenge AND to win title outright, instead of by tie-breaker…
Kaneohe, I concur on just about everything u said. I, too, think Mr bill is NOT uhf1/playhoopsa/eagle/team1st/etc. His grammar and syntax (not to mention train of thought) is far too intelligent to be the crazy old guy.
Mr bill makes a few solid points. I think a lot of us notice the differences in talent between some of the players that are getting playing time taken away by a lesser talented player (who happens to be a recruit of the current regime…no coincidence). That said, I love sheriff. He is a team guy, great attitude, and may grow into a great player in the future. But, I agree that he is NOT READY for prime time right now. When he provided spot duty, he did a solid job. 3 mins here and there. But as he has played more, and taken time from both q and the guy that quit, I have also cringed at times. Q may have shooting issues, but he is all heart and the soul of this team. And does a ton of little things. I won’t address fleming, since he is gone. I’ll just say, I wish things had worked sifferently, as I feel we could definitely use him!
For the record, I am not Mr bill or team1st/playhoops/etc. Having a similar opinion doesn’t make us all the same person lol
In fact, many on this board know who I am. And I was at the game in person again tonight, and again sitting with rod’s dad.
You guys are typical spectators; just following the ball and watching it the whole time.
Watch what Drammeh does off the ball. He fights through picks, he harasses shooters into tough shots. He hardly lets a guy beat him off the dribble or off the screen.
He shut down Luke Nelson at Irvine. He forced Luke into so many fadeaways and jumpers because he couldn’t get past him; Luke went 5-13 that game.
Kendall Smith went 6-20 when flanked by both Drammeh and Q.
Jaylen Bland couldn’t get a shot off of Drammeh inside the arc. All of his 3’s were against our zone when Valdes failed to close out early to him on the corners. He went 5-15 with all 3’s.
Drammeh flanks the opponents best guards to help spell Q and AV.
Oh, and he draws one or two charges a game. He makes those momentum changing plays that don’t show up in the box score. The coaches know more than we all do, so let’s not speculate as to why someone plays over another player. You can always teach someone offense, but defensive reaction and foot speed comes naturally. That’s why he plays.
Great tough gut check win for UH as champions they shall be crowned. This tam wins in many forms good or bad but the bottom line they reach deep inside and find ways to pull it out. Congratulations !
I will be there at the LBSU game as barring no major upsets the tournament will come down to UH, Irvine, LBSU and a dark horse team in Santa Barbara who is playing well down the stretch !
With being conference champions the bows are the #1 seed and will play Fullerton in the afternoon game. Fullerton will be a tough game as UH barely got out of Orange County with an over time victory.
Three games in 3 straight days for an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament. I am THERE !
Thanks WeBleedGreen for clearing that up. SD’s defense was lacking.
I wonder if anyone has every looked at the Efficiency Ratings for players on the team?
Check it out guys! Sheriff is 10th and only in front of HI 5-0.
This site allows for people to speak their opinions and if some of you don’t like it then get off the site yourselves. Don’t harass others because you don’t like their opinions. I think KellyO or Kaneohe97 said it well on one of the previous blogs.
Mr. Bill,
Waiting for some one to bring the PER’s up.
What ya say is true.
Nice comeback from behind.
Great game. Stay focused. See you folks next week.
Go Bows!!!
S23A, sorry bro but your wrong about him. Are you his dad or relative or friend? If so, that would explain a lot on why you are pulling on his nuggs so hard. Anyway, like I said, I’m sure he’s a great guy and he does seem like a good team player and all but I’m just stating the facts man. Of course we don’t know as much as EG and I’m not speculating that I do, all I’m saying is from what we can see, which is only game time, he is not D1 ready yet. Not to say he can’t develop into a good player later on…but I’ve already mentioned this in a previous post about how he needs to bulk up and work on his offense, I won’t repeat myself. Oh yea, your also wrong about your quote that you can teach anyone offense…really? You really believe that? You must not follow basketball that much then. Case in point, has Q significantly improved his poor FT shooting since last season? I’m sure coaches are working with him but his % is still around 45%.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the kids attitude and effort, but I just wouldn’t be able to forgive EG if UH lost a game because they didn’t get enough scoring due to Drammeh and/or his lack of defensive IQ when another player already proved they can score and play solid defense. We shall see how he develops over the next few years, I hope I’m wrong about the kid.
Mr. Bill, nice to see another poster, as well as WeBleedGreen, who are actual realistic and not afraid to comment on things that are “negative’. Seems like a lot of posters on here are not critically watching the games and are hesitant to say anything possibly critical of the team or coach. Doesn’t mean we aren’t true fans or we are negative nellys, we just prefer not to see the world, in this case our basketball team, through rose colored glasses.
First off, LOL at your whole post. ^I’m wrong? You haven’t even refuted my opinion about his defense. Where’s your counter argument? I brought up facts, numbers, what did you bring up?
Oh, you brought up grammar in using the possessive “your” instead of “you’re.”
Is the 97 in your username your birth year? Lol. You get a grammar pass for being a kid if so. If that’s your high school grad year, may god have mercy on your soul for not knowing the difference.
And no, I’m not anyone’s relative or personal friend of the team. I was looking for an intelligent discussion but you let me down.
Defense wins games. It’s true. You can’t teach offense? Quincy is shooting and making his 3’s this year, isn’t he? Where was that the last two years? You can’t teach that? Some people will never be good free throw shooters. Look at Shaq, Iguodala, they just can’t get it down.
Janks has a back-to-the-basket game this year, no? Where was that last year? You can’t teach that?
Buddy Hield’s shooting percentages are way up his senior year compared to his last three years, no?
You can’t teach offense? Lol.
First off, LOL at your entire “reply” post. Trying to correct my grammar and accusing me of being a child while you still use childish acronyms like LOL and did you even go to college? If you did, you would take a look and proof-read your own crap before throwing stones, your post is chock full of mistakes. I don’t even care about that because this is a forum/blog not a college essay so I’m not going to meticulously edit my post just for some cocky grammar police, point being, who really give a crap. I’m sorry if my response didn’t satiate your desire for an intelligent debate. Looks like you just have more time to look up stats than I do but that’s because I actually have a life outside of the internet. I simply don’t have the time to waste to look up info to try to prove anything to you, your nobody to me. I have a full-time career (meaning, no, I’m was not born in 97 and yes, I’m actually pretty smart, probably more educated than you) and I have children and social circles to engage in. Let me guess, you are probably in your mid to late 40’s, single, still living with parents, and your only social interaction in your life is from this blog…and probably fruitless attempts at dating sites. Nobody like a grammar police but, I’m sorry if I don’t spell and grammar check all of my post, like I said I don’t have time for all that. But since it looks like you have tons of free time why don’t you feel free to edit my posts and be quiet about it (again, because nobody besides you even care) since it seems so important to you.
Again, I’m not here trying to change your mind or convince you that my points about can’t teach offense is right, looks like your stubborn and unwilling to look beyond your own self-serving research. I’ll admit this though, you are right about Q shooting better from the 3 this season and Janks playing better down low. I still don’t think that just because Q has shot the deep ball better that should negate his poor FT shooting. My point on that was I think missed FT’s could very likely cost us a game in the BWT. Hope I’m wrong but it’s still something the coaches should be having Q and the rest of the team focus on during practice and non-practice time. Sure, Shaq and others didn’t improve their FT over the course of their careers but that’s probably because they didn’t put in the time and effort to work on it. Free throw shots are mechanical, meaning if someone constantly and consistently practices the shooting mechanics of this shot, over time it will become muscle memory and FT % will improve. Try do some research on that because I have and studies prove my point. I’ll even waste some more of my time and copy the link of the studies and send it to you if you want.