All season, the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa men’s basketball team has found itself at a disadvantage in the Big West Conference.
Because of COVID-19, the Warriors’ Big West Conference schedule was non-existent, an advantage their California-based opponents have held since the start of the season.
Travel logistics, COVID-19 practices and travel protocols did not allow the Warriors to get any conference action in December.
In virtually every one of his Zoom press conferences, UH coach Eran Ganot expressed his trepidation about his team’s ability to compete in conference play in the early going.
One area of concern Ganot had was how to solidify a rotation of players and create stability within the roster.
After UH struggled against two NCAA Division II opponents in the first half of games, against Hawai’i Pacific and UH-Hilo, it would be no surprise to spectators that they would struggle against a talent-stacked Big West Conference.
At times, UH has struggled against their California-based foes which have had a lot more court time than they have. But Ganot demonstrates the power of what a good coach can do.
It would be intuitive for detractors to say that a 2-2 record in conference play is not impressive.
Under the circumstances, the Warriors (3-3, 2-2) have dealt with it, and Saturday’s 76-53 win over Cal State Fullerton was a big exclamation point on their chance to compete to win the Big West tournament.
This notion sounds absurd until you look at how they were able to defeat Fullerton in Saturday’s contest.
The Warriors had four starters combine for 51 of the team’s 76 points, and those four nearly outscored the entire Titans team.
With all of the adversity UH faced, being able to put a roster with that type of talent to play in sync together in a conference game is beyond impressive.
So what if Fullerton is currently at the bottom of the Big West? You still have to win and compete even against inferior teams, and the Warriors did that.
Now they are onto a bigger test for this weeks’ game and, hypothetically, if they could even split against a UC-Irvine team that is 5-1 in the Big West Conference, they could be right in the mix to position themselves to get a decent seed come tournament time.
If the Warriors can display the level of continuity they’ve showcased in the second game of the Fullerton series, the ceiling will remain high for a team that hasn’t had much time to develop chemistry with each other.
The confidence this team has displayed is a result of good coaching, which is another reason to bet on this team come tournament time, because success always starts at the top.
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Jason Blasco, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or jblasco@thegardenisland.com.
