It was a walk to remember.
In the gloom of Saturday night’s one-sided road loss to UC San Diego, Hawaii basketball coach Eran Ganot went for a walk in La Jolla. His last thought-gathering, postgame walk was in 2016, after the Rainbow Warriors fell to Maryland in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 32 in Seattle.
On Saturday, Ganot focused on the ’Bows losing the battle of the boards, coverage lapses and offensive hesitancy. The ’Bows shot 30%, including 22% on 3s. They also missed 10 of 16 layups, lay-ins and tips.
The deficiencies then were brought up during team meetings and video sessions, with the matters addressed during practice. Through the recent struggles, losing seven of nine, the ’Bows remain in seventh place at 6-10 with four regular-season games to go. Eighth-place Cal State Bakersfield is 6-11, and No. 9 Cal Poly is 5-11. Eight of the 11 Big West teams qualify for the league’s postseason tournament in Henderson, Nev.
Of the recent struggles and jostling for a postseason berth, Ganot said, “I think people avoid it, don’t want to talk about it. We’re an elephant-in-the-room program. If you’re afraid of success or afraid of failure, you don’t deserve to be successful. The pressure is a privilege. And we should be able to talk about it, address it, attack it. … Play-it-safe deal and hide and run, that’s never good for you. It might be comfortable, but you have to be uncomfortable to be successful.”
Ganot added: “All of us have to welcome the challenge, take on the challenge, acknowledge the elephant in the room, the reality of the situation we’re in, where we put us in. And also think about how blessed we are to be able to do something about it.”
The ’Bows’ final homestand of the season features UC Riverside on Thursday and UC Davis on Saturday. The ’Bows end the regular season with next week’s road games against Cal State Bakersfield and Cal State Northridge.
“We do have four guaranteed games,” Ganot said. “We control our own destiny. If we want to play more than that, it’s in our control. You can go scoreboard watching and all that nonsense. That’s not living. Or go focus on things we need to get better and attack the heck out of it, and go from there.”
Ganot said the offense, which was stagnant against UC San Diego and UC Irvine, needs to be “less predictable.” Ganot said the ’Bows also are working to counter the presses and traps that have led to turnovers and “(forced) us to play off our back foot.” Opponents recently have been successful in doubling UH’s post players. Most of all, Ganot said an emphasis is to play with the grit to avoid future regrets.
“You coach long enough, play long enough, there’s finality to seasons,” Ganot said. “You go, ‘Oh, man, I wish I could have done this’ or ‘wish I had this back.’ Well, I don’t want to do that now. I don’t want to replay anything. I don’t want our team to think that way. What happened, happened. It happened for a reason. Even the pain. You hear me say it, it grows from pain.”
