Whacking the SWAC

The Hawaii basketball team is undefeated all-time against teams in three Division I conferences.

They are the Colonial Athletic Association (4-0), the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (16-0), and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (22-0).

The perfect mark against the last of those three is on the line twice this month, including tonight as the Rainbow Warriors take on Mississippi Valley State of the SWAC at 5 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center. After the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, Alabama A&M comes to down Dec. 29 for the first meeting between the programs.

The SWAC, a historically black conference spanning the South, has long been a severely disadvantaged league, its members having the play a series of brutal road “guarantee” money games for basically their entire nonconference slate in order to keep their athletic departments viable and afloat financially. The SWAC, not coincidentally, is usually relegated to one of the bottom two slots out of 32 in conference strength metrics.

There have been some close calls in the past, notably against Grambling back in 1975; UH won only 87-85 in the second of three meetings that year. The first of those meetings, on Jan. 6 that year, Bruce O’Neil’s team played the only UH road game against a SWAC team to this day, and the Rainbows came out of Shreveport, La., with a 12-point win.

But by and large, these games have been blowouts. Only four of UH-SWAC meetings to date have been single-digit games. In 22 encounters, the average margin of UH victory is 17.5 points.

Here’s the breakdown of all meetings between UH and SWAC opponents. After the date and score is the game’s location and margin of victory for easy reference.

Note that UH technically vacated its 2012 meeting with Arkansas-Pine Bluff because of NCAA sanctions. For UH’s own recordkeeping, it lists its record vs. the SWAC as 21-0 for that reason.

UPDATE: After Sunday’s 76-51 win over MVSU, UH is now 23-0 all-time vs. the SWAC, and 22-0 for UH’s own records.
UPDATE PART II: After Saturday’s 73-61 win over Alabama A&M, UH is now 24-0 all-time vs. the SWAC, and 23-0 for UH’s own records.

Alabama A&M (1-0)
Dec. 29, 2018: Hawaii 71, Alabama A&M 63 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-8)

Alabama State (1-0)
Dec. 6, 1996: Hawaii 80, Alabama State 54 (Stan Sheriff Center,plus-26)

Alcorn State (2-0)
Dec. 10, 2001: Hawaii 62, Alcorn State 48 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-14)
Nov. 18, 2007: Hawaii 84, Alcorn State 55 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-29)

Arkansas-Pine Bluff (6-0)
Nov. 24, 2010: Hawaii 70, UAPB 63 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-7)
Nov. 11, 2012: Hawaii 81, UAPB 54 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-27)
Nov. 14, 2014: Hawaii 85, UAPB 57 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-28)
Dec. 2, 2015: Hawaii 75, UAPB 47 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-28)
Nov. 27, 2016: Hawaii 64, UAPB 44 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-20)
Nov. 10, 2017: Hawaii 82, UAPB 70 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-12)

Grambling (3-0)
Jan. 6, 1975: Hawaii 106, Grambling 94 (Shreveport, La., plus-12)
Feb. 28, 1975: Hawaii 87, Grambling 85 (Blaisdell Arena, plus-2)
March 1, 1975: Hawaii 90, Grambling 75 (Blaisdell Arena, plus-15)

Jackson State (0-0)
No games played

Mississippi Valley State (4-0)
Dec. 6, 1986: Hawaii 97, MVSU 81 (Blaisdell Arena, plus-16)
Nov. 23, 2004: Hawaii 71, MVSU 58 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-13)
Dec. 29, 2015: Hawaii 77, MVSU 48 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-29)
Dec. 16, 2018: Hawaii 76, MVSU 51 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-25)

Prairie View A&M (4-0)
Dec. 4, 1999: Hawaii 77, PVAMU 59 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-18)
Dec. 1, 2008: Hawaii 78, PVAMU 70 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-8)
Dec. 20, 2014: Hawaii 76, PVAMU 68 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-8)
Dec. 6, 2017: Hawaii 72, PVAMU 60 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-12)

Southern (1-0)
Dec. 29, 2014: Hawaii 71, Southern 57 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-14)

Texas Southern (2-0)
Dec. 19, 1997: Hawaii 70, Texas Southern 53 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-17)
Dec. 20, 2003: Hawaii 97, Texas Southern 67 (Stan Sheriff Center, plus-30)

Total: 23-0