UC Irvine coach Russell Turner paused a second as he searched for the right word to describe the roster changes Hawaii underwent in the time since the teams shared the Big West regular-season championship of 2016.

He chuckled and went with “evacuation.”

It’s true — a coach can game-plan for a conference opponent while still feeling a modicum of empathy for his counterpart. UH and UCI meet at the Anteaters’ Bren Events Center today with drastically different personnel on the court.

“I admire the way their staff put the team together,” Turner said. “That’s a tough scenario for any staff to deal with. But they’ve clearly got a group together that fits well and that they can build with. So we know that they’re going to be a formidable opponent.”

Irvine (8-9, 1-0 BWC), like Hawaii, went through its nonconference season nearly unrecognizable from its 28-win team a season ago. The larger-than-life presence of 7-foot-6 Mamadou Ndiaye was gone to the pros. Backcourt mainstay Alex Young had exhausted his eligibility. And senior Luke Nelson, the Big West’s only returning first-team player, went down in the preseason with a hamstring injury that kept him out until two games ago.

But Irvine — even with nine freshmen on the roster — held to its identity as a large, defense-first, grind-you-down outfit. UCI is 29th nationally in field-goal percentage defense (.390) and 31st in rebounding margin (plus-6.4). Senior center Ioannis Dimakopoulos, at 7-2, has two 6-10 teammates to aid him on the boards.

The Anteaters have Nelson back and have won three straight, including their conference opener Wednesday against preseason favorite Long Beach State. UCI prevailed 82-67, serving notice that a fifth straight 20-win season is in play.

“He’s our most accomplished and experienced player, so having him back is a relief,” Turner said of Nelson. “It makes every guy on our team a little bit better, because he takes the place at the top of the totem pole.”

In Nelson’s absence, senior Jaron Martin (14.1 ppg) stepped up his game. The shoot-first guard became a distributor, too, at 3.4 assists per outing, helping him earn two Big West player of the week awards. Dimakopoulos found a niche as a stretch 5; he went 4-for-4 on 3s for 18 points against LBSU.

“Coming in I don’t know if there’s a team playing at a higher level right now than Irvine,” UH coach Eran Ganot said Friday via phone from Orange County.

Hawaii (6-8, 0-1) had many of its usual offensive struggles in a 67-64 loss at Cal State Fullerton in the ’Bows’ road/league opener Thursday. UH rallied from a 13-point deficit and had a shot to tie at the buzzer, but Leland Green’s contested, one-handed shotput from just beyond the arc was wide of the stanchion.

UH enjoyed an early 10-point lead on the Titans, then dipped below 30 percent shooting until late.

“(That was) the third or fourth game in a row we’ve gotten off to good starts,” Ganot said. “And now, we can’t sustain it. So it’s flip-flopped on us. We’re never going to get where we need to be unless we find that 40-minute consistency.”

Wing Noah Allen’s funk continues to deepen, whether starting or off the bench. He went 0-for-6 from the field for two points, bringing the senior’s run of missed field goals to 16 going back to the first half against Southern Miss on Dec. 25.

Ganot said the 6-foot-7 Allen (11.1 ppg overall, but 4.6 since Dec. 22) must fight through it by hustling for close opportunities.

“He’s gotta continue to battle and believe,” he said. “Certainly we’re not going to give up on him.”

A breakthrough at UCI will be challenging. UCI has won 31 of its past 37 home games going back to January 2014. One of those losses was to Hawaii, 75-71, in a sold-out thriller last February.

“I don’t think (the crowd) will be quite like that, but it is going to be a TV game, a Saturday night game, and I think it’ll be a good college basketball environment,” Turner said. “Really looking forward to it.”