MeiLani McBee was less than a minute into her media session Thursday when, unprompted, she brought up last season’s loss to UC Davis in the Big West Conference tournament semifinals.
“We’re all looking forward to winning this year (in spite of) what happened last year. That’s everyone’s mindset right now,” McBee said.
When asked further about last year’s loss to the fifth-seeded Aggies that knocked the top-seeded Rainbow Wahine out of the tournament and kept them from winning a third straight conference championship, McBee admitted the pain was still fresh.
“It’s on everybody’s mind. Even talking about it right now it gets me (riled) up again,” McBee said. “It’s irritating. It sucks that we lost, but we’re coming back strong this year.”
The Rainbow Wahine basketball team held their first official practice on Thursday, just over a month away from their opening exhibition at Hawaii Hilo on Oct. 27.
Hawaii begins its season on Nov. 7 at Portland and then plays at Portland State on Nov. 9 before the home opener in the Bank of Hawaii Classic against Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 22.
Despite the stunning loss to the Aggies in Henderson, Nev., Hawaii played in a postseason tournament for the third consecutive year, losing to California in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.
The Rainbow Wahine have won two of the past three conference titles and have also won the regular season twice during that span.
With eight returning seniors and 12 returnees total to go along with four incoming freshmen from Australia or New Zealand and senior graduate transfer Mia ‘Uhila, Hawaii coach Laura Beeman will oversee a competitive gym every day in practice as every player on the roster vies for playing time.
“I think the expectations are high. I think it’s going to be a really fun brand of basketball,” Beeman said. “It’s not going to be an eight-man rotation. We can go 14, 15 deep this year and not miss a beat. It’s not going to be just seniors on the floor, I can promise you that.”
Hawaii’s roster of 16 players includes three fifth-year seniors in McBee, point guard Kelsie Imai and wing Daejah Phillips, who was the Big West Sixth Player of the Year and was an All-First Team selection last season.
Imai, who is from Pahoa on the Big Island, will get to play back home in the season-opening exhibition, a trip that will include a keiki clinic the day before involving both the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
UH’s men’s basketball team will play the Vulcans in an an exhibition game of their own on Oct. 25.
“We’ve talked about this for a couple of years now. I’m super excited to be able to play in front of my family, especially my grandparents, who haven’t been able to see me play since high school in person,” Imai said. “The announcement came out last week and a lot of people have reached out (and) are super excited to see me play.”
McBee, who said she will graduate in December, said that was the deciding factor into her returning for her fifth year.
She will also take aim at the UH career 3-point record. McBee enters the season third on the school’s career list with 160, trailing Megan Tinnin and Amy Atwell, who holds the record with 205 made.
Her 62 3-pointers made last season were the fourth most in a single year.
“I’m glad I’m able to come back and play because I’m still looking for that 3-point record,” McBee said. “It’s very important just because it’s a goal that I set last year, and because I didn’t get it last year, it’s like, I need to get it this year.”
McBee wasn’t the only person to openly voice how much last season’s loss to UC Davis hurt. Beeman, who closed the regular season last year with her 200th career win at UH, never got to add to that total.
“I’m still ticked off about it. I don’t think I had the girls in a position they needed to be mentally to win that game and that’s on me,” said Beeman, who enters her 13th season as head coach. “So my offseason has been challenging to the point as far as reflecting back on where I dropped the ball.
“As far as this team, I am not going to have to have that conversation because they bring it up on a daily basis. I think there is a chip on their shoulder and I don’t think they can knock it off until they do something special this year.”
