Hawaii Warrior World

Formerly about Rainbow Warriors basketball, but now covering all University of Hawaii sports.

About the blog host

Brian McInnis has covered sports on Oahu full time since 2007, when he joined the Honolulu Star-Bulletin staff as a general reporter. He was the UH basketball beat writer from the 2008-09 season through 2017-18. Follow him on twitter @Brian_McInnis

Latest news

Hawaii water polo: Alumna Femke Aan makes hand sanitizer at ‘3Rewery’ to counterattack coronavirus

By Brian McInnis on April 21, 2020

When Femke Aan completed her eligibility as a Hawaii water polo player last year, she knew she was moving on to a new chapter of her life. She couldn’t have imagined this, though. Aan, a standout member of the 2019 Rainbow Wahine squad that got UH back to the NCAA tournament after a three-year absence, is brewing hand sanitizer to help combat the spread of coronavirus as part of her UH graduate school studies. A native of the Netherlands and […]

Hawaii men’s basketball: ‘IncrediBows’ of 2015-16 win 100th Season Best-Team Bracket

By Brian McInnis on April 7, 2020

The people have spoken. By a final split of 70.1 percent to 29.9 percent among 144 votes on Twitter, the top-seeded “IncrediBows” of 2015-16 downed the No. 3-seeded “Internationals” of 2001-02 to claim the championship of the Hawaii basketball 100th Season Best-Team Bracket. The championship of the #HawaiiMBB 100th Season Best-Team Bracket is live. MATCHUP >> No. 1, 2015-16 (Stefan Jankovic, Roderick Bobbitt, Aaron Valdes) VS. >> No. 3, 2001-02 (Predrag Savovic, Carl English, Mark Campbell) Team info/rosters here: https://t.co/0Rb4QYuAR2 […]

Hawaii men’s volleyball: Rado Parapunov named Big West Player of Year; 4 Rainbow Warriors make BWC first team

By Brian McInnis on April 6, 2020

For the first time since 2003, Hawaii men’s volleyball has a conference player of the year — and the Rainbow Warriors did it without playing a single conference match in 2020. Senior opposite Rado Parapunov earned top honors from the Big West Conference in leading the Rainbow Warriors to a 15-1 record and a No. 2 ranking before the season was prematurely shut down due to the coronavirus threat. UH’s only conference player of the year until today was Costas Theocharidis […]

Hawaii men’s basketball: Center Dawson Carper enters NCAA transfer portal

By Brian McInnis on March 27, 2020

“Big Sauce” is taking his talents elsewhere. On Friday, sophomore center Dawson Carper became the second Hawaii basketball player to enter the NCAA transfer portal in three days, following Drew Buggs on Wednesday. Hawaii C Dawson Carper (SO) has entered the transfer portal. https://t.co/vAUsINLpHc — Verbal Commits (@VerbalCommits) March 27, 2020 Carper confirmed his intention to leave the program in a message to Hawaii Warrior World. The true 7-foot sophomore from Colorado Springs, Colo., started 22 games in the 2019-20 […]

Hawaii men’s basketball: 100th season Best Team of All Time bracket unveiled

By Brian McInnis on March 18, 2020

Here it is. The Hawaii men’s basketball “Best Team of All Time” 100th season edition, 16-team bracket, as selected by Dave Reardon and myself, with feedback from some folks who know UH hoops. Kudos to Curtis Murayama for designing the above bracket. You, the fans, will determine which teams advance and which see their “season” come to an end. Voting on Twitter (@hawaiiwworld) between the first two pairings (upper left quadrant in the bracket) begins Thursday morning at 6 a.m. […]

Rainbow Forecast: Here comes the ‘Greatest Hawaii men’s basketball team of all time’ bracket

By Brian McInnis on March 17, 2020

In lieu of any actual University of Hawaii sporting events this week — or for the foreseeable future — we thought we would try something different and fun. We’re making an attempt to settle a debate. What was the greatest Hawaii men’s basketball team of all time? Some felt the most recent NCAA Tournament edition, the Rainbow Warriors of 2015-16, achieved that distinction by becoming the first team in program history to win a tourney game and setting a program […]

Hawaii men’s basketball: Final statistics and notes of 2019-20

By Brian McInnis on March 14, 2020

Now that the 2019-20 season is officially done — not in the fashion anyone envisioned, but still — let’s take a look at some of the final numbers for the 17-13 (8-8 Big West) Rainbow Warriors. >> First-team All-Big West shooting guard Eddie Stansberry led the Rainbow Warriors with 15.9 points per game, ranking second among Big West players for the full season (Big West Player of the Year Lamine Diane did not qualify for that tally, as he became eligible just […]

Hawaii women’s basketball: Rainbow Wahine coping with lost opportunity

By Brian McInnis on March 13, 2020

They could’ve won it all. That was still how some members of the Hawaii women’s basketball team felt upon arrival back at the Manoa campus on Friday morning, fresh off a disappointing flight home due to the cancellation of the Big West and NCAA tournaments because of the coronavirus threat. The Rainbow Wahine saw their season come to an unfulfilling end at 16-14 after beating Cal State Fullerton convincingly, 72-59, in the Big West second round Wednesday, earning a date […]

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