A few moments into his postgame press conference, coach Eran Ganot expressed heartfelt appreciation for the national TV exposure Tuesday night’s Pearl Harbor Invitational brought his University of Hawaii basketball team.
A thought no doubt widely seconded by rival coaches across the Big West Conference from their TV sets.
Because if they didn’t have one before, the Rainbow Warriors’ peers are now well into their early scouting report on UH, considerably enlightened by the 68-57 loss to Seton Hall on Fox Sports 1.
One minute and 25 seconds into the contest UH was down 7-0, the result of turnovers in its first three possessions. By halftime the ’Bows had committed 12 turnovers that were recycled into 18 points by the Pirates.
It was an all-too-familiar start for folks who have followed the season locally, but a revealing glimpse when shared with a prime time TV audience beyond these shores for the first time this season.
What they saw, UH guard Brocke Stepteau acknowledged on an night when he had a team-high 17 points but mourned his three turnovers, “is a team that plays hard but has a lot of mental lapses and makes a lot of turnovers. I think people watching this would say it is a good team but one that is inexperienced and can be rattled a bit.”
Overall, UH committed 18 turnovers — one short of its season worst in the opener against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville — setting up 25 of the Pirates’ points and setting itself on the way to a fourth loss in eight games.
The ’Bows have shuffled starters at the guard positions and rotated players in and out, but the backcourt remains their weakest link on this rebuilding team. Not an ideal situation in the Big West, which has traditionally been a guard-strong league.
The ’Bows, as is their modus operandi, played hard throughout Tuesday night, somehow hanging in the game. Seton Hall’s 48 percent free-throw shooting having something to do with it. But because of their mistakes, the ’Bows were never able to grasp a lead or put significant pressure on the Pirates.
Indeed, they closed to seven points, 54-47, with 5 minutes, 40 seconds left to play on two Larry Lewis Jr. free throws. But more turnovers spelled their doom and, suddenly, they were down by 15.
Ganot said, “Once we started taking care of the ball better, not good enough, we (stayed in the game). Six (second-half turnovers) is better than 12 (in the first half), but it is not great.”
“I find that extremely frustrating,” forward Gibson Johnson said of the vexing turnover problems. “We need to find it more frustrating until we stop doing it. But, yeah, it is tough and you are digging yourself a hole when you are doing that. Whereas if we played smart from the very start we’d give ourselves opportunities to get leads, build (momentum) and win games.”
Johnson said, “When we start taking care of the ball we’re going to be really good. Really good.”
But nobody can say when that might be for a team that came into the game ranked 260th (among 347 NCAA Division I teams) in turnovers at 15 per game.
Stepteau said, “They (Seton Hall) played us really aggressively and we passed the ball (blindly) without seeing they were in the passing lanes. I hope by the start of the Big West we can fix this.”
If not, the ’Bows know what surely will be waiting for them in conference.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
