UH-Hilo men’s basketball team doesn’t figure to have as many secrets up its sleeve heading to Chaminade as it did before. All the while, the Vulcans will be fully guarded against those same elements of surprise from the Silverswords.
UHH coach Kaniela Aiona doesn’t sound like he’d have it any other way.
Aiona’s third and fourth games of his tenure come Saturday and Sunday at McCabe Gym in Honolulu, and in addition to being Pacific West Conference Hawaii pod contests, they also can be referred to as West Region showdowns.
With a pair of home victories against Hawaii Pacific in their pocket, the Vuls seek their first 4-0 start since the vaunted 2005 team went 25-4. Chaminade, ranked fourth in the West, hasn’t played a game yet, but it has had an opportunity to engage in film study of three of Vulcans games (including a exhibition loss at Hawaii).
“We don’t have game film on Chaminade, but we know they are a well-run program and they have a lot of depth at the guard position,” Aiona said. “Games like this are fun because they take you back to when scouting opponents wasn’t as important, and all you could do was just focus on doing what you do.”
Spreading the ball around was what UHH did well in its last game Feb. 17, an 82-77 victory against HPU in which six players (Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, Jordan Graves, Sasa Vuksanovic, Steven Hubbell, Jalen Thompson and Darren Williams) scored at least nine points.
Freshman Ethan Jetter joined Williams, Tait-Jones and Vuksanovic in double figures on the the opener.
“I thought we showed character in how we competed in our first two games,” Aiona said. “Now we are looking for growth each time we step on the floor.”
The Silverswords have won four in a row against UHH and own a 68-44 all-time series advantage, though they enter the season looking to replace 78 percent of their scoring from a year ago.
Chaminade does return PacWest freshman of the year Isaac Amaral-Artharee, a guard who averaged 9.4 points a game. Another guard to watch could be Jessiya Villa, who transferred from University of Hawaii after being lauded as the best high school player in the state in 2017.
If Chaminade is on its game, Aiona expects Graves and Williams, among others, to be put to the test.
“In the past, they liked to pressure and play fast so we have worked on going against that style this week,” Aiona said.
It’s early, but it should be noted that UHH is associated with “other” top Division II teams from around nation.
In addition to being ranked sixth in the pandemic-condensed West Region, the Vulcans were among the “other teams receiving votes” in the latest top 25 poll.
Aiona, of course, is focusing on other things.
“We are expecting two very competitive contests this weekend,” Aiona said.
Tip-offs are at 5 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday after the UHH women (0-2) take the court three hours earlier each day in what will serve as the Silverswords’ first games of the season.
