By KEVIN JAKAHI
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Last season, Hawaii won the Big West championship with a school record 28-6 mark but was picked to finish eighth out of 10 teams in the preseason media poll — so much for past production carrying any weight.
That’s when happens when all five starters depart. Actually, Mike Thomas, who started all 34 games last year, is back but the senior forward will redshirt after suffering an offseason wrist injury.
Last season, UH produced its first-ever NCAA Tournament win, a 77-68 victory over California. The ‘Bows are 1-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. It was Hawaii’s first tourney appearance since 2002, when the program was with the Western Athletic Conference.
The Rainbow Wahine also captured the Big West tournament title. It was the first time since 1994 that both programs advanced to the NCAA’s Big Dance in the same year.
The Rainbow Warriors will trot out a new lineup this season, something that hasn’t happened in nearly four decades.
Conventional wisdom often proclaims coaches shouldn’t be judged until they bring in their own players, usually three or four years after they’ve been hired.
UH second-year coach Eran Ganot’s timetable has been moved up.
For comparison’s sake, UH has followed that timeline for its struggling football coaches. Norm Chow went 3-9 in 2012, then 1-11, 4-9, and 2-7 in 2015. Fred von Appen was 2-10 in 1996, 3-9, and 0-12 in 1998. The ax fell when wins, morale, and fans evaporated.
Ganot will likely outlast both, unless he pulls a von Appen. Last month, he signed a two-year extension that runs through the 2019-20 season.
He’ll get a chance to immediately put a stamp on the team, after the ‘Bows played an uptempo game and relied on All-American honorable mention and mismatch nightmare Stefan Jankovic, a 6-foot-11 multi-tooled forward, who could shoot a 3-pointer, run, rebound and post up.
With three weeks into practice, 10 newcomers highlight the team, including five freshmen, four junior college players, and one Division I transfer.
The ’Bows will look to transfers Noah Allen (UCLA), a senior forward; Gibson Johnson (Salt Lake College), a junior forward; and Larry Lewis (Odessa College), a junior guard.
Also redshirt sophomore forward Jack Purchase (Auburn), who sat out last as a Division I transfer, is expected to provide an immediate impact.
In 2013, Purchase, who’s from Australia, competed on the U-17 National team and was named the Grand Final MVP of the Big V’s U-23 league.
The ’Bows play BYU-Hawaii in an exhibition game at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The Outrigger Rainbow Classic will be held Nov. 11, 13 and 14.
Hawaii opens with SIU Edwardsville (6-22 last year) at 9 p.m. Nov. 11 at the Sheriff Center. The game will be broadcast on OCSports, channel 16.
UH received one first-place vote in the media poll, no word if it was the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Long Beach (19 first-place votes), the conference runner-up, was picked as the favorite.
Should the ‘Bows win the Big West title again they’ll watch the NCAA Tournament on TV. Last December, the NCAA banned UH for the 2016-17 postseason in the wake of violations, one reason three juniors (Jankovic, Aaron Valdes, and Stefan Jovanovic) said aloha and left.
However, out of that rubble, the ‘Bows can transition from the mode of champion to Tom Brady (the sixth-round draft pick) determined underdog, bring in a new style of play or stick with the old, and show off Ganot’s coaching chops.
