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The film doesn’t play favorites.
After a review of tape from the Hawaii basketball team’s first intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday, Rainbow Warriors coach Gib Arnold decided a little transition was in order in Monday’s practice. He had his guards push the tempo, setting defenders back on their heels with just 12 seconds assigned to the shot clock.
"The beautiful thing about film is it never lies. And it’s not prejudiced," Arnold said. "It can tell you if a senior’s doing it wrong or a freshman’s doing it wrong. … One of the things I thought we did not do a good job of is our transition defense. We take a lot of pride in (that). We work on it a lot. But it wasn’t very good in the scrimmage, especially since we know what we’re trying to do offensively."
Arnold has talked about playing consistently up-tempo since he was hired as UH coach in 2010. Could this be the year? Well, maybe.
UH tried to get out and run at times in 2012-13, averaging 73.0 points per game despite a shallow guard rotation. This year, Keith Shamburger’s emergence at point guard, along with the addition of junior college transfers Garrett Nevels and Quincy Smith to go with a healthy Brandon Spearman, have raised expectations for the backcourt.
"I think the perfect season would be, press for 40 minutes and run for 40 minutes," Arnold said. "But the only way you can do that, you gotta be deep and have athletes. I think we’re getting there. I don’t think we’re totally there yet. I think our guards are as deep as we’ve ever been."
UH wants to work freshman bigs Caleb Dressler or Stefan Jovanovic into the rotation, but experienced a setback in that regard with Dressler out another week with a bulging disc in his back and Jovanovic missing time Monday with a tweaked ankle.