This isn’t the way to start a basketball season, but if it leads to productive finish, UH-Hilo coach GE Coleman might remember his team’s early season issues with a small smile.
“If it were up to me I wouldn’t schedule our first home game against a conference opponent that might be the best offensive team in our league,” Coleman said Thursday of the Saturday home opener against BYU-Hawaii in the Vulcans’ gym at 7:30 p.m., “but we have some people getting minutes now and learning; that can definitely help us down the road a bit in January.”
Saturday’s game might be one that will test the scorekeepers as each team likes to run the floor and attack the basket. The Vulcans (0-4) are averaging 82.5 points per game, BYU-Hawaii (3-2), is at 85.0.
The Seasiders went 24-6 last season and surged through the conference tournament, beating California Baptist in the championship game. They advanced to the West Regional tournament but lost to host Azusa-Pacific.
“They know what they’re doing, they have it going pretty good,” Coleman said, “but we have some good things that happened (on an 0-3 road trip to Washington), that we can build on.”
The biggest issue has been an inability to rebound competitively — UH Hilo ranks 297th of 350 Division II schools with a minus-11 in rebounding margin — and that won’t likely improve too much until Darius Johnson-Wilson returns from an injury in another month, perhaps five weeks. Jordan Russell, the senior guard, turned an ankle in the last game, an overtime loss at Saint Martin’s, and Ryan Reyes is rehabilitating from a broken jaw.
There’s a chance Russell and Wilson could play against BYU-Hawaii, but those will likely be game time decisions.
“At least now we can see the areas we need to improve on,” Coleman said. “We could use all those guys, but we need them ready to play so it’s just a matter of working through it right now.”
Senior Van Lockett has been holding things together from his point guard position, averaging 13 points per game while distributing to others, most notably junior wing Parker Farris, who is averaging 22.8 points per game on 55 percent shooting from the floor (28 for 51), including 13 of 27 from 3-point range (.481).
Farris is leading the PWC with a 22.7 per-game according average, a nudge above BYU-Hawaii’s Ian Harward, a 6-foot-11 senior who has averaged 21.2.
Both teams had tough, close losses to Seattle Pacific this season and the Vulcans are coming off their most disappointing result, an 86-85 loss at Saint Martin’s in which UH-Hilo led at the half and into the second half, before Russell rolled his ankle and had to watch from the bench the rest of the way.
“It was frustrating the way it happened,” Coleman said. “It was not our nature to commit so many turnovers (19, a season high), but when you combine that with a starter leaving because of an injury, it’s not a good way to try to win a game.”
They get another chance Saturday.
