For this two-game road trip, the Hawaii basketball team will be traveling without a rear-view mirror.
With a reconstructed roster featuring nine first-year Rainbow Warriors, coach Eran Ganot has emphasized keeping recent history a mystery.
The ’Bows play UC Davis on Thursday, stay overnight in Northern California, then take a 434-mile flight to Orange County on Friday ahead of Saturday’s game against UC Irvine.
UCI tops the Big West at 7-0; UCD is third at 5-3. The 4-3 ’Bows are in a four-team cluster in fourth place. Eight of the Big West’s 11 teams qualify for the league’s postseason tournament.
Ganot said “this is a new team” that is not looking back at last year’s 2-6 start to Big West play. Nor are the ’Bows paying attention to recent meetings, particularly on the road, against UCD. Last year, the Aggies edged the ’Bows 68-65 in the semifinals of the Big West Tournament.
The ’Bows have not defeated the Aggies in University Credit Union Center since Samuta Avea drained the winning 3 on March 5, 2020. A week later, the teams were set to meet in the quarterfinals of the Big West Tournament. But that matchup — and the rest of the postseason — was canceled because of the pandemic. The ’Bows had slow starts in the first half in each of the ensuing four regular-season losses in Davis.
UH guard Kody Williams said the goal is replicate the strong start the ’Bows had in last Saturday’s victory over Cal State Bakersfield.
“We’ve got to throw the first punch,” Williams said, “and we’ve got to keep punching.”
Ganot said the Aggies have several players who have accrued Big West minutes, an asset for a league in which several members have undergone roster makeovers. Last year, the backcourt of Elijah Pepper and TY Johnson fueled the Aggies’ attack. Pepper completed his NCAA eligibility, and last April, Johnson submitted an application for the transfer portal. But the 6-foot-3 guard decided to remain with the Aggies, and this season, Johnson leads the Big West and is sixth nationally with an average of 21.2 points per game. His scoring average is 22.8 in league play.
Williams, who held UC Riverside’s Barrington Hargress to 6-for-22 shooting (1-for-8 in the first half), is expected to be the lead defender on Johnson.
“It’s another key matchup,” Williams said. “It’s something I honed in on when I was guarding Hargress from Riverside. (Johnson) has the highest usage rate in the country. He can break off a possession at any time. It’s really his team. He has the green light. He has the keys to their offense.”
Statistically, Johnson has at least a one-third ownership of the Aggies’ attack. His 155 shots account for 35.6% of the Aggies’ total field-goal attempts in eight Big West games.
Williams acknowledges Johnson will put up a lot of shots, mostly on drives and short jumpers. Overall, he has connected on 42.2% of his 2-point shots. Williams said his defensive goal is to “make it as grimy and dirty as I can. … He’s also a point-of-attack cover. But it’s a team cover. You need five people to guard him.”
Ganot said the league is enjoying unprecedented parity nearing the halfway point of the Big West’s regular season.
“This is the most balanced it’s been,” said Ganot, who is in his 10th season as head coach. “There’s a lot at stake, and there’s going to be jockeying for position. I think there’s a lot that can change for a lot of teams. Teams at the top have to keep performing. Teams at the bottom or in the middle, there’s a ways to go.”
BIG WEST MEN’S BASKETBALL
At University Credit Union Center, Davis, Calif.
Hawaii (12-6, 4-3 BW) at UC Davis (11-8, 5-4 BW)
>> When: 4 p.m. Thursday
>> TV: None
>> Radio: 1420-AM; 92.7-FM
>> Streaming: ESPN+
