One of the good things about being basketball coach with a January birthday is that you never have to think too hard about a fitting present.
This year, University of Hawaii at Hilo (5-7, 3-3 in the Pacific West conference) men’s basketball coach GE Coleman celebrated his 35th birthday Friday and all he wants is a victory Saturday against Concordia (8-6, 4-2 in the PWC) Hilo Civic.
“These guys are really good,” Coleman said after watching video of the Eagles in recent games. The Irvine, Calif., school has won four of its last five after losing to Chaminade and beating BYU-Hawaii earlier in the week. “This conference is just that way, you can never look too far ahead on the schedule, you have to just keep your focus on what’s next and what’s next is a really good team.
“I probably sound like a broken record,” he said, “but it’s true again, we will have to play at our best to have a chance to win this game.”
The Vulcans were at the edge of their best result of the season Tuesday when they dropped an 81-77 decision to two-time defending PWC champion Asuza Pacific.
“They look just as good,” Coleman said of the Eagles. “They are really well coached and they’ll look to attack us off penetration, they know how push the pace, hard, and attack your defense, so we will have to scrambling to get back and defend.”
The encouraging part of it all is that Coleman has a team much more prepared to compete with the upper half of the conference this season, having recruited help both for the starting lineup and for the bench.
The Vulcans have four players averaging in double figures, led by senior Parker Farris (22.4), second in the conference behind the 24.7 average of Michael Smith from California Baptist. Brian Ishola is averaging 16.2 and his rebounds are up to 8.7 after his fifth double-double of the season in Tuesday’s game. Darius Johnson-Wilson is averaging 11.0 and point guard Ryley Callaghan is averaging 10.6.
Wounded troops: The hits keep on coming for the Vulcans’ women’s team, but the approach they take hasn’t altered a bit in a difficult season.
In a last-seconds defeat to defending co-champion Azusa Pacific on Tuesday, the Vulcans (1-8, 1-5 in PWC) were without several key players, including leading rebounder Asia Smith (foot), fellow post player Patience Taylor and guard Lauren Hong, sidelined with a concussion, but it didn’t diminish their approach.
Coach David Kaneshiro sat alone in his team’s locker room after the game, looking for answers that would not appear on the stat sheet.
“It’s tough,” Kaneshiro said, “we had some tough losses in December, but they continued to work, continued to practice with energy. We had injuries, people going down and they continue to work hard, (against Azusa Pacific) we had all kind of foul trouble but they worked, they stayed with it and they played really well.
“They didn’t finish like we would have hoped, but I’m still proud of them,” he said. “This is a great group, a lot of character, a lot of belief in each other. They will keep working.”
Concordia (6-6, 4-2 in PWC), is looking to complete a three-game sweep of the state, having routed Chaminade (93-77), and BYU-Hawaii earlier in the week.
“Very good team,” Kaneshiro said, “they will pressure us all over the floor, we need to be prepared.”
He said they practiced hard Friday, and that, yes, Smith, Taylor and Hong will all be out again.
The women’s game is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. with the men’s game to follow at 7:30
