Perhaps it was on the 120-mile drive from the Latvian capital of Riga to the seaside town of Ventspils.

Maybe it was on the road to the windy city of Liepaja or the castle town of Grobina.

But amid the hours spent crisscrossing the Latvian landscape in the summer of 2013, two rival young college basketball coaches with not much more than a nodding acquaintance — Eran Ganot and Russell Turner — came to find a Baltic bond, sharing stories, experiences and career hopes on the recruiting trail.

It was Turner, the head coach at up-and-coming UC Irvine, and Ganot, a then-assistant climbing the career ladder at Saint Mary’s, finding a mutual respect in long hours on the road.

Now, they meet Thursday night in a showdown at the Stan Sheriff Center, their teams — Hawaii (18-3) and UC Irvine (18-6) — each 7-1 and tied for first place in the Big West Conference.

“We were in Latvia for the Euro 18-Under Basketball Championships and we decided to share a car to make some treks,” recalls Turner, UC Irvine’s head coach.

“Basically, he was my ride,” Ganot said. “He needed some company and I needed a ride.”

Turner said, “When you are traveling over there it is always nice to have another English speaker with you. You’ve got to be pretty adventurous recruiting internationally and we both were.”

There was also a shared appreciation of the Saint Mary’s basketball program and how it had capitalized on international recruiting to achieve and maintain success as a mid-major program.

Amid the small talk, Turner sought to pump Ganot for information about a Saint Mary’s program from which they have both drawn inspiration. But the ultra-secretive Ganot “wouldn’t share much of it with me,” Turner said.

One of the products of that trip for Turner was Haroldas Saprykinas of Lithuania, now a UC Irvine forward. Turner was also there to watch guard Luke Nelson of England, then freshly committed to the Anteaters and now an all-conference guard.

“I remember how excited he was watching Nelson perform well and I remember thinking, ‘I’m glad he won’t be in our (Saint Mary’s) league,’ ” Ganot said.

Overall the Anteaters have four international players, including 7-foot, 6-inch Mamadou Ndiaye from Senegal, while Ganot, in his inaugural season at UH, is looking overseas, primarily to Australia, to build the Rainbow Warriors’ roster for the future.

“We knew the talent level on Hawaii’s team from having played them in the conference (tournament) championship game last year, but I didn’t know the transition would go as well as it has for Eran,” Turner said. “I mean, that is a really hard gig for your first (head) coaching job, but he’s done a terrific job with it.”

Ganot said, “He (Turner) has done one of the best jobs in the West and, you could argue, nationally, in terms of what he has done with Irvine. I used to root for him from afar but didn’t know we’d be in the same conference one day.“

That is, undoubtedly a topic of discussion the next time they find themselves overseas.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.