Another week, another challenge for the Hawaii backcourt.
After facing one of the Big West Conference’s most dynamic guard combos in a home series with UC Santa Barbara, the Rainbow Warriors take on a Cal State Northridge team led by the league’s top scorer and yet another efficient playmaker at the point.
Where UCSB’s JaQuori McLaughlin and Devearl Ramsey were the focal points for the ’Bows scouting report a week ago, those roles are filled by CSUN guards T.J. Starks and Darius Brown II entering a two-game series starting today at CSUN’s Matadome in Northridge, Calif.
“When you have experienced point guard play, you have scoring guards, you have transfers who can get it going … we know how dangerous they can be,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “But we’ve had some good competition thus far. We’ve seen some good guards and that could help us moving forward.”
After dropping both games to first-place UCSB — falling in overtime last Saturday, to close a three-week homestand — the ’Bows (7-7, 5-7 Big West) will try to regain their traction in the conference standings on their trip to CSUN (7-8, 3-5).
The Matadors had a bye last week and will also look to improve their standing in the Big West race led by the backcourt duo of Starks and Brown.
Starks transferred to CSUN from Texas A&M, where he was named to the Southeastern Conference All-Freshman team while helping the Aggies reach the Sweet 16 in 2018, and entered the week averaging a league-high 19.7 points per game on 44% shooting under third-year coach Mark Gottfried, who previously coached at Alabama and North Carolina State.
“They’re always a very high-scoring team. They run a good offensive system,” Ganot said.
Ganot regards Brown as “one of the more undervalued players in our league.” The junior entered the week fourth nationally in assist-turnover ratio at 4.69 (75 assists to just 16 turnovers in 15 games) and second in the conference with five assists per game.
Ganot said ball security would be another carry-over theme going into the week of practice.
The ’Bows committed 12 turnovers leading to 16 points for UCSB in a 59-50 loss in the first game. UH finished with 18 giveaways in the rematch, but limited their turnovers in the second half, when the ’Bows rallied from a 15-point deficit to force overtime before falling 81-74.
“These situations are definitely going to help us,” UH freshman guard Biwali Bayles said of last week’s duels with the conference-leading Gauchos. “If this situation happens in the (Big West) tournament and we’re in a dogfight we just know that we’ve been here before and we know what we need to do in order to come out on top of these games.”
The ’Bows entered the week sixth in the conference standings, just ahead of Cal State Fullerton (4-6 BWC), followed by CSUN. All 10 teams will qualify for the Big West tournament scheduled for March 9-13 in Las Vegas. The bottom four seeds will play first-round games on March 9 for the right to join the top six in the quarterfinals two days later.
“Our guys are intelligent young men, they know the deal,” Ganot said. “I think we all know where we’re at, it’s more focusing on what we can do about it.
“We’re a process-oriented program — that’s where our focus will be. The rest will take care of itself. But, obviously, we’ll put ourselves in a good position if we execute the things we’re talking about.”
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Big West men’s basketball
At Northridge, Calif.
Hawaii (7-7, 5-7 BWC) vs. CSUN (7-8, 3-5)
>> When: Today and Saturday, 2 p.m.
>> Radio: 1420-AM / 92.7-FM
>> Online: BigWest.TV (today), ESPN3 (Saturday)
