How crucial is Thursday’s home game for the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team?
Consider this:
- The opponent, UC Riverside, is one of only five Big West Conference teams (out of 11) the Warriors have beaten this season.
- UH currently is in seventh place in the league standings. Only eight teams will qualify for the Big West Tournament, set for March 11-15 in Henderson, Nev.
- The Warriors are coming off two of their worst losses of the season, a 66-49 home defeat to UC Irvine on Feb. 15, followed by an 83-44 drubbing at UC San Diego last Saturday.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. in SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center. The game will be televised live statewide on Spectrum Sports Channel 12, and broadcast live via radio on ESPN Honolulu 1420AM.
Hawai’i is 14-13 overall and 6-10 in league play, with only four regular season games remaining. UC Riverside is 18-11, 11-6 and in fourth place.
The Warriors did defeat the Highlanders, 83-76, in the teams’ first meeting at UCR on Jan. 9.
“I think the biggest thing with that, is that when we played Riverside, we set the tone, we went up 10 points pretty early and were able to hold onto that lead,” said UH senior guard Ryan Rapp, who scored a team-high nine points and grabbed four rebounds in the loss at UC San Diego. “The last couple games, we haven’t been setting the tone, we’ve always been playing with our back foot, whether we’ve been down 10, down 15. We’ve always been trying to climb that uphill battle.
“I think the biggest thing for us is just setting the tone, and not letting teams come into our house and push us over. We need to get off to a better start, and set the tone.”
Warriors coach Eran Ganot said his team’s struggle the past two games has been “all-emcompassing.”
“One, we haven’t performed to our level, and two, give the opposing teams credit, they’ve done a really nice job,” Ganot said. “Over the years we’ve always been well-balanced, we haven’t lived and died by anything, in terms of other ways we can be impactful. At the core of it all, that’s just X’s and O’s, that’s defensively, rebounding, the phases … offensively.
“But (recently) we’ve kind of been out-competed a little bit, and we’ve usually been at the top of our league, in the top tier in that area. We’ve fallen a little bit, and in these games, it’s hurt us. But we’re going to continue to attack those things, I’m going to continue to say if we have faith and conviction, we can turn this around and finish strong.
“Certainly the potential is there, but it’s not just going to happen for us, we gotta take it. We gotta do some things this week to put us in position (to win).”
In the victory over UC Riverside on Jan. 9, Hawai’i center Tanner Christensen posted a team-high 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Big West Conference Standings
UC San Diego 14-2
UC Irvine 13-3
Cal State Northridge 12-4
UC Riverside 11-6
UC Santa Barbara 10-7
UC Davis 9-8
HAWAI’I 6-10
Cal State Bakersfield 6-11
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 5-11
Long Beach State 3-13
Cal State Fullerton 1-15