One of the attractions for UH-Hilo’s women’s basketball team in its annual exhibition game against UH-Manoa is that coach David Kaneshiro gains an opportunity to measure how effectively his players will handle adversity.
Thanks to injuries, some old and some new, UHH faced some hardship even before leaving home.
The Vuls will dress a skeleton crew of eight Thursday at Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu when they take on the Wahine for the eighth consecutive year, but the injury situation does have its silver linings, Kaneshiro noted.
“The start of the year, there is always a big emphasis on conditioning and fundamentals, both offensively and defensively,” he said. “The positive in the low numbers is there is a lot of reps for the players that are healthy.”
Among the missing will be one of the program’s all-time most prolific players, junior guard Kim Schmelz, as well as one of Kaneshiro’s most coveted recruits, Konawaena graduate Mikayla Tablit.
Both are nursing knee injuries, but Kaneshiro does expect freshmen Mandi Kawaha (Hilo High) and Maddie Beck, a 5-foot-11 product of Clarkston, Mich., to see major minutes.
“It’s their first college game, and it’s always interesting to see how (freshmen) handle it,” Kaneshiro said. “I would expect them to go out and play (hard).”
UH-Manoa welcomes back four starters and 10 returnees from a squad that finished 12-18 last season. The Wahine beat the Vuls 85-34 in 2017. In the series, the only game between the Division I and II schools decided by 17 point or fewer was a 60-51 Vuls loss in 2011, which was Kaneshiro’s second season.
In the big picture, he wants to see how his players react when they’re shoved to the floor.
Sophomore Allie Navarette flashed heart all of last season, leading the Vuls in scoring (16.7 points) and rebounding (7.9 points) during a 7-16 UHH campaign. The 6-foot inside player also has fought injuries this preseason, though she is expected to suit up for the 7 p.m. tip-off.
“Allie missed some fall conditioning and is still working her back into shape,” Kaneshiro said.
Schmelz, already the program’s fifth all-time leading scorer, took a redshirt last season after a knee injury limited her to only two games. Kaneshiro said she hasn’t practiced yet and had no timetable for her return, while Tablit recently suffered a knee injury.
Also still working her way back from an injury is former Hilo High product Amber Vaughn, a senior grad student who redshirted last season after starting five games. Junior forward Chyann Gabriel, who helped Kamehameha-Hawaii claim two HHSAA Division II titles before graduating in 2015, could make her Vuls debut. The Hilo native, known as Makamae Gabriel in her BIIF days, spent a season at Everett CC in Washington.
UHH opens the regular season Nov. 16-17 at Hilo Civic with games against Multnomah, an NAIA school in Oregon.
In terms of team attitude, “This is as good of a group as we’ve had,” Kaneshiro said. “Makes it fun to show up to practice every night.”
Polling ninth
The UHH men were selected to finish ninth of 12 teams Wednesday in the preseason Pacific West Conference poll. Battling myriad injuries of their own, the Vuls went 7-20 in 2017-18. They open the season at their home gym Nov. 12 against Alaska-Fairbanks.
The team to beat is Point Loma, which returns four starters from a squad that reached the West Regional.
• On Tuesday, the UHH women also were picked to place ninth, with Azusa Pacific tabbed as the favorite.
Neither Vulcans squad had a member on the preseason all-league team.
