After a rough outing at Big West Conference men’s basketball leader UC Irvine last Saturday, a Thursday night home game against second-place UC San Diego does not sound much easier.
But the University of Hawai’i players and coaches insist they are up for the challenge, which takes place at 7 p.m. in SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center. The game will be televised live statewide on Spectrum OC12, and broadcast live via radio on ESPN Honolulu 1420AM.
The Warriors are 12-8 overall and 4-5 in the Big West after two straight road losses, including a resounding 71-55 defeat at UC Irvine last Saturday. UCSD is an impressive 17-4, 7-2, coming off a stunning 79-54 home rout of Cal State Northridge last Saturday.
UH coach Eran Ganot said that while UC Irvine deserves credit for its defensive effort, much of the Warriors’ woes on offense were self-inflicted.
“We missed point-blank, uncontested layups,” Ganot said. “(The Anteaters) are a good defensive team, and we’re playing another one. But we got to the paint, we got the looks we want, so let’s not be hesitant. Just like when we get good open 3’s, if we start passing up (those), we’ll be hesitant and not very good. So I think it’s a little bit of everything: doing better at taking advantage of the good looks we get, working harder, making some adjustments to get better looks in other areas.”
Finding overall consistency on offense has been a team challenge for Hawai’i, as well as an individual one. Reserve guard Marcus Greene, who scored eight points off the bench last Saturday, said the search for answers starts from within.
“I think it just comes with taking every game with the right approach,” Greene said. “We have had good starts, we have had good energy coming into the game. We just need to stay with our process and do what we had been doing with those games beforehand and come in with the same energy, same attitude and be ready to attack all games that way.
“There’s a lot of valuables at play, so I think the best thing we can do is not focus on the variables. Just focus on us, focus on practice, get to film, get to shootaround and put in the extra work we do ourselves so we know we put in all the preparation. And then once we go out from there, we’re gonna be confident to play the way we play.”
More details to come.
Big West Conference Standings
UC Irvine 8-1
UC San Diego 7-2
UC Davis 6-3
UC Riverside 6-3
Cal State Northridge 5-4
UC Santa Barbara 5-4
HAWAI’I 4-5
Cal State Bakersfield 4-5
Long Beach State 3-6
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 1-8
Cal State Fullerton 1-9