A new season means a new geezer for the University of Hawaii basketball team.

Last year it was Hiram Thompson, who played for every UH coach dating back to when MTV actually featured music.

Now we’ve got shooting guard Zane Johnson. I’m told the Arizona transfer was witness to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, a couple of years before he moved east and hoisted set shots into Dr. Naismith’s first peach basket.

"I call him the old man, because he’s got old-man moves," UH freshman Shaquille Stokes said after Tuesday’s practice. "He’s an old man, but he’s got talent."

Actually, Johnson’s just 22. But his game has reached the age of getting things done — things in addition to shooting 3-pointers, that is.

That speaks well for UH’s hopes this year. If Hawaii is to win consistently, Johnson will have to lead, and not just in the scoring column like last year when he averaged 15.8 per game.

He admits that in his young whippersnapper days he felt the little things were pretty much for guys who couldn’t shoot. D-ing up, rebounding, setting picks? Those were ways scrubs could try to make themselves useful.

"But I’ve learned to love defense. If the guy’s a deer in the headlights you go after him, you go for blood. Defense is all heart."

He talks about playing D with the passion of that pudgy kid at the park who slaps his palms on the asphalt, not one of the best long-range shooters in the county.

THE RAINBOWS are picked to finish in the upper half of the conference, and three media-types have even chosen UH to take the championship.

They’ve got Vander Joaquim, the center with huge upside. They’ve got Stokes, one of the most talented high school guards in New York City last year. They’ve got Joston Thomas, the forward who just has to think of himself more as "power" than "small."

And they’ve got Johnson, from whom coach Gib Arnold expects more than anyone else.

"As the only senior on this team, it’s his team. … I want him to be an extension of me on the floor and what we want to do. I thought he made huge strides last year on the defensive side. True leaders affect winning in a lot of different ways. When he’s off you still gotta guard, you still gotta be a leader, you still gotta rebound."

Johnson knows shooters have great games, good games and bad games. He remembers the bagel on opening night last year. He remembers the UC Davis game, when he was unstoppable from trey land.

And that’s what makes it important that the rest of his game — especially as the senior leader — be consistently at a high level. He wants to play with emotion and energy, but set an example as steady and under control. It’s not as easy as it might seem.

"I’ve got to be positive every day," Johnson says. "I can’t come in with a negative attitude. I can never take a day off. We’re going to have to work to get our defense where we want it to be. One of our goals is to be top three in the country in (defensive) field goal percentage."

We saw some lockdown performances from Johnson last year when he was a mere lad of 21. The saga of The Old Man and The D promises to be even better this season.