It wasn’t supposed to be like this for men’s basketball team at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, not this year.
The Vulcans and coach GE Coleman recruited in the offseason for size and depth and the idea was that they wouldn’t be completely overmatched by bigger, deeper teams. That was last year’s story.
With six games left a year ago, the Vulcans, bedeviled by injuries with the two smallest guards in the Pacific West Conference, were 5-9 with an outside shot at gaining the postseason conference tournament with a necessary rush at the end. This year, with fewer injuries, a new backcourt and the second leading scorer in the conference, they are 4-10 at the same point in the schedule with three final home games, starting with Fresno Pacific (4-17; 4-10 PWC), Thursday at 7:30 pm in the Vulcans’ (6-14; 4-10 PWC), campus gym.
The team is bigger, depth has still been an issue and an internal issue with Ryan Reyes was dealt with last week when Coleman dismissed the senior, sending him home from a road trip for “conduct detrimental” to the team.
Now, they are down to seven players and the goal is to simply run the table and see what a 10-10 record gets them in terms of postseason possibilities.
“Not what we wanted,” Coleman said, “but I feel like this team has come together, everyone is supportive and that can carry you sometimes. It is sort of like last year when we expected to collapse yet we still had a chance (for a playoff berth), going down the stretch.
“We said it last year and it’s still true,” he said. “Anything can happen, but there’s no looking ahead. At this point, it’s all about getting a win and seeing what that can do for us.
“None of us are happy with the record but I think we feel pretty good about our team right now, I’m eager to play this out and see where it gets us.”
The recent past needs to change, immediately. The Vulcans have lost six in a row, including the last four on the recent road trip and the two previous home games.
UHH has been only 4-5 at home this season, not exactly ingredients in a recipe for a home sweet home situation, but if you’re looking for optimism, it arrives Thursday. The Vulcans are 2-0 in their campus gym this season, so a return to that facility should generate some optimism.
The fact that Fresno Pacific has dropped four in a row isn’t lost on the team, which split with the Sunbirds last year, winning at home and losing in California.
BYU-Hawaii (3-12, 5-16), comes in Saturday, playing in Hilo for the final time because the school will eliminate its athletic department at the end of the season.
Parker Farris, the team’s only remaining senior, is second in the PWC in scoring (22.1) and has fallen back a bit from conference leader Michael Smith (California Baptist), averaging 24.8, but Farris has had some big games at home and he especially likes playing in the school gym.
Brian Ishola, the junior transfer from North Dakota State, is second on the team in scoring (14.8), and leads them in rebounds, averaging 7.8 per game. Darius Johnson-Wilson, the junior in eligibility who lost two seasons to injury, is the other Vulcan in double figures, averaging 10.1 points per game.
