LAS VEGAS>> Again?

It is a one-word question Hawaii basketball coach Eran Ganot acknowledged following Thursday’s 65-52 loss to UC Riverside. It marked the fourth Big West tournament in a row that the Rainbow Warriors failed to advance out of the opening round.

“We’re aware of it,” Ganot said. “I’m aware of it. I’m not over-complicating it, either, though. Each year is a different team. Some of these groups haven’t been through that.”

A season after reaching the round of 32 in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, Ganot’s first season as head coach, the ’Bows were under an NCAA cloud of uncertainty because of infractions under the previous regime.

“We didn’t even know if we were going to be in the (2017) postseason,” said Ganot, whose ’Bows lost to Long Beach State in that year’s league tournament. “We battled the next two years.”

In the ensuing Big West tournaments, the ’Bows lost to UC Irvine, 68-67, in 2018, and to Long Beach State, 68-66, in 2019. The 2020 tournament was canceled because of the pandemic.

“A couple plays here and there, and it doesn’t go your way,” Ganot said. “You can look at the Irvine game, look at the Long Beach State game. There are a couple possessions, and you’re down to the wire, they make a shot, we miss a shot. That’s why when you coach long enough, you’ll be on both ends of it. I’ve been part of six championship games (in an 18-year coaching career), and now we’re in a stretch where we haven’t gone over the hump. You’ve got to own it. We’re aware of it. And you put your mind into doing what you can to make your team better. You can’t get into that stuff. Others can, and I get it. I respect it, and I respect you asking the question.”

On Thursday, the ’Bows rallied to close to 53-51. But they did not hit a field goal the rest of the way. “The effort is there,” Ganot said. “At the end of the day, we feel we should have gotten the job done, and we didn’t.”

It has been a challenging year for the ’Bows. Because of coronavirus-related protocols, the ’Bows opened training with limited workouts in which players wore masks and the coaches had face coverings and gloves. They have not entered their locker room in nearly a year. In the locker room, there is a wall dedicated to seniors of each season. There’s a picture of Cas (Jardine) and James (Jean-Marie) in there, but no one has looked at it,” Ganot said.

The ’Bows’ initial 15-player roster was trimmed to 11 after wing Samuta Avea and Kameron Ng opted out, forward Manel Ayol entered the transfer portal, and post Bernardo da Silva was shut down because of an injury. Six of the 11 were first-year ’Bows, and a seventh, guard Junior Madut, redshirted last spring as a mid-year transfer.

The ’Bows were the only team to play a full Big West schedule. The ’Bows shot well — 36% on 3s, with four players connecting at better than 40% from behind the arc — until they didn’t shoot well. There were scoring droughts in several games.

“There are so many things that have to go your way,” Ganot said. “But certainly, at the end of the day … I know we need to do better.”

Ganot added: “My response is not going to be to remove accountability. The buck stops with me. Let’s make that clear.”

With Monday’s start of spring break and all classes using on-line instruction, the players are allowed to leave the protocol bubble and go to their family homes.

“These guys deserve right now to be with their families,” Ganot said. “Everybody talks about limited practices and interaction, but they’ve really been away from their families. Even when we’re on the road, they’re not with their families. Those are sacrifices everybody’s had to make to play. I’m proud this group stuck together and continued to make the sacrifices from start to finish. Our team had zero interruptions. … It’s a credit to the sacrifices they’ve made, and now they get to be with their families, recharge the batteries, and finish strong academically.”

In normal years, coaches would be be out recruiting. But the NCAA extended restrictions on in-person recruiting through the end of May.

Through recruiting, the ’Bows are seeking to reinforce the post, as well as add sharpshooters and a versatile guard. In February, Jerome Desrosiers, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound forward from Princeton, said he will join the ’Bows as a graduate transfer this summer. Desrosiers played 82 games for the Tigers. Princeton did not play this year in accordance with the Ivy League’s decision to cancel the 2020-21 season because of the pandemic.