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

Uncertain times

By Brian McInnis on March 19, 2014

With today’s news that the NCAA will investigate the Hawaii men’s basketball program, the next few weeks will certainly be interesting around the Manoa lower campus. You can debate the merits of the college governing body sending representatives out here on the subject of assistant coach Brandyn Akana‘s apparent suspension self-imposed by UH. Certain parties believe the infraction that was committed has been totally overblown and was caught before real damage was done. Others say it was a very serious […]

Showtime

By Brian McInnis on March 13, 2014

The Hawaii women’s basketball team raised the bar in the Big West tournament on Wednesday. Can the UH men do the same? We’re a handful of minutes away from tipoff between the No. 4 Rainbow Warriors and No. 5 Cal State Northridge at the Honda Center in Anaheim. UC Irvine is in the process of banishing UC Riverside in the 1-8 game. Irvine has the best fan showing thus far, with a couple thousand in house. I’m hearing the UH […]

UCSB apologizes

By Brian McInnis on March 7, 2014

UC Santa Barbara wasted little time in exercising damage control for Thursday’s widely replayed and nationally discussed fan incident on the Gauchos’ senior night game against Hawaii. The Gauchos athletic department issued an all-points apology on the matter on Friday: “On behalf of the UCSB student-athletes and staff we are disappointed and saddened by the singular act of a student during the first half of last night’s men’s basketball game versus Hawai’i. We have apologized to Hawai’i athletics director Ben Jay […]

Travel gripes

By Brian McInnis on March 6, 2014

Gib Arnold had to do a double take when he saw the final version of the Big West portion of the 2013-14 schedule. This week’s games — the last of the regular season — feature a bizarre travel itinerary for Hawaii. After the Rainbow Warriors play at UC Santa Barbara (4 p.m. HST on ESPNU) today, they must race Cal State Fullerton back to the islands for Saturday’s senior night at the Stan Sheriff Center. UH can’t fly out after […]

A fateful defeat

By Brian McInnis on February 28, 2014

Another agonizing defeat in The Pyramid for did one thing for Hawaii — it helped shape the Big West Conference tournament picture quite a bit. After Thursday’s 63-61 setback at Long Beach State, fourth-place UH (19-9, 8-6 Big West) will very likely remain in fourth with two games still to play, trailing co-second-place teams LBSU and UC Santa Barbara (9-4) by two in the loss column. The Rainbow Warriors are up two games on Cal State Northridge and Cal Poly, […]

Road Warriors

By Brian McInnis on February 17, 2014

Raise your hand if you thought Hawaii would have a better conference road record (4-2) than home (3-2) coming down the stretch of Big West play. That’s reality, and it’s certainly the first time in recent years that is the case. UH has a record active streak of four away games in a row coming off wins at UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton last week. The second-half execution at Fullerton wasn’t perfect, but you have to credit the Rainbow […]

Gameday: Cal Poly // Going streaking

By Brian McInnis on February 8, 2014

Everyone’s favorite foil is back in town! Yup, it’s the Cal Poly Mustangs, who own a well-chronicled, head-scratching five-game winning streak on Hawaii. UH (15-7, 4-4 Big West) and Poly (8-13, 4-4) are both coming off of losses. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. tonight at the Stan Sheriff. The Rainbow Warriors have been pretty good at bouncing back; they’ve dropped consecutive games only twice this year. Keep your eye on Keith Shamburger’s shooting — he’s 4-for-24 in the last three […]

The Shambargo

By Brian McInnis on February 4, 2014

That’s what I’m calling it until the media embargo on Keith Shamburger is lifted — the Shambargo. Things in Hawaii basketball land took a bizarre twist last week with talk of some team issues following the 92-83 home loss to Long Beach State, and the first-half benching of Shamburger, then the reigning Big West Player of the Week, against Cal State Northridge on Saturday. After Monday’s practice, UH coach Gib Arnold said Shamburger was not talking to the media until […]

Court Sense