The old men’s college basketball tradition of “Midnight Madness” is long gone, but UH fans will still get an earlier-than-usual peek at the team this season as the Warriors will play an exhibition game against Pomona-Pitzer at 7 p.m. Saturday in BankOh Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The game will not be televised or available via live stream, but will be broadcast live on radio via ESPN Honolulu 1420AM.
Admission and parking will be free, which brings back more memories of Midnight Madness, a fan-friendly event in the 1980’s, 1990’s and early 2000’s when the team would open its first practice at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 15, the official first day of practice under then-NCAA rules.
“In the (recent) past, we had closed-door scrimmages or (intrasquad), but this year we thought it would be good to get in front of the crowd, have them get to know a lot of the new faces,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “In this new world (of college athletics), we’ll try to do more of that, because everybody’s gonna have a lot of new faces.”
Nine of the 13 players on this year’s roster are new. They join returning seniors Gytis Nmeiksa, Harry Rhouliadeff, Aaron Hunkin-Claytor and AJ Economou. Hunkin-Claytor, a sophomore who was a part-time starter at point guard last season, suffered a broken left (non-shooting) hand not long after official practices opened in late September and he will not suit up for Saturday’s exhibition. Nmeiksa, a part-time starter at forward, is reportedly also healing from an undisclosed injury and may not be available, either.
“The same focus has been there every week, we’ve just been chipping away at it,” said Rhouliadeff, a returning starter at power forward. “Coach has said, ‘Next man, every man,’ so guys have stepped up and it’s been great to see.”
Six of the new players are NCAA Division I transfers, while there is one each from the Division II, junior college and high school levels.
Two newcomers to watch are graduate transfer guards Dre Bullock and Hunter Erickson. Bullock, 6 feet, 6 inches tall, averaged 12.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game last season at South Dakota, including 18 games of double-digit scoring and a 31-point outburst against NCAA Tournament participant Omaha.
Erickson, 6-3, transferred from Utah where he scored 15 points off the bench versus visiting UH in Salt Lake City two years ago.
“I feel like we’re definitely a few steps ahead (compared to last year at this time) just in terms of our on-court chemistry,” Rhouliadeff said. “I feel like our offensive identity and defensive identity is getting there, but we’re still chipping away at it. We have different guys at different positions who can play different ways — we can play a point guard in the post, or put a ‘5’ out on the perimeter, so I feel like it’s very exciting for the team, the potential that this team has.”