With a few more outcries of "Boom!," Christian Standhardinger sent media members scrambling for the Hawaii basketball record books once again.
The Rainbow Warriors’ junior forward became the second player in program history to receive back-to-back conference player of the week awards when the Big West anointed him again on Monday.
Standhardinger averaged 20 points and 11 rebounds in victories over Long Beach State (94-73) on Thursday and UC Irvine (78-72) on Saturday, helping UH (15-9, 9-4 BWC) extend its winning streak to five games and move into sole possession of second place.
"It is great recognition," Standhardinger said. "I put a lot of hard work into it, and to get something back in the middle of the season, that’s amazing. But most important is the five-game winning streak we’re on right now. I’m much more excited about that. I know my teammates want to get another one too."
UH departs for Northern California this afternoon for this week’s road games at UC Davis (9-13, 5-6) and Pacific (13-10, 7-4).
Energy remained high at Monday’s short-but-serious practice. That’s been part of the Standhardinger Effect.
"(The honor) is great for Christian. He’s earned it. He’s playing in great control, great rhythm," UH coach Gib Arnold said. "Great confidence. I think it’s raising the level of everybody."
"His energy’s contagious, and it’s spread to all of us," senior Hauns Brereton said. "It’s brought our team to a high level, a level needed to win on the road and at home and against tough teams."
Standhardinger estimated he’s let out a "Boom!," his trademark expression of energy on a big play, "about 10 or 11" times since the winning streak started.
"The more often I say the ‘Boom’ thing, the better I do. So it was a lot the last five games," he said.
Over the winning streak, Standhardinger has put up 22.4 points and 11.2 rebounds per game. That included a 31-point, 16-rebound effort at UC Santa Barbara to start the streak. Only four other players in program history had reached the 30-15 benchmark.
He’s up to 16.3 points and 8.1 rebounds for the season on 51.8 percent shooting.
Anthony Harris’ consecutive Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week awards in 1995-96 (Dec. 27 and Jan. 2) was the only other instance of a UH player winning conference weekly honors in that fashion.
It was the third BWC player of the week award for the team this season. Freshman guard Brandon Jawato received the other on Jan. 7, making it three of the past six weeks the award went to a ‘Bow.
