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

Standhardinger returns // Team bonding

By Brian McInnis on October 30, 2012

A weekend retreat to Molokai seems to have done the Hawaii men’s basketball team good. For starters, junior forward Christian Standhardinger made a sooner-than-expected return to the court coming off his staph infection on his right elbow. His arm is still wrapped up; it will probably be that way going into Friday’s exhibition vs. Hawaii Pacific and the Nov. 9 regular-season opener. “Everything is fine,” Standhardinger said on Monday. “They cut it open, and it (healed) a lot quicker than […]

My Big West ballot

By Brian McInnis on October 26, 2012

With the story on the Big West preseason poll in today’s edition, I thought I’d offer up my ballot for inspection to those curious. (I won’t be doing this for my general election ballot.) First, here’s what the actual preseason poll/player team was. 2012-13 Big West Preseason Media Poll 1. Long Beach State (13) -194 points 2. Cal State Fullerton (6) – 164 3. UC Irvine (1) – 153 4. Hawaii – 132 5. UC Santa Barbara – 129 6. […]

Scrimmage sudden death

By Brian McInnis on October 26, 2012

Before the Hawaii men’s basketball team’s closed scrimmage against BYU-Hawaii on Thursday, they held a 30-minute intrasquad scrimmage on Wednesday night in the Stan Sheriff. Wanted to get details of the scrimmage (with refs) up sooner, but was experiencing some technical difficulties on the blog — since resolved. It was a pretty exciting battle. The “first” team that day (those that got to wear the black jersey) were coached by Benjy Taylor against Brandyn Akana and the green team. Head […]

UH frontcourt takes another hit

By Brian McInnis on October 22, 2012

Former UH hoops player Bill Amis, who will be a member of OC Sports’ pre and postgame UH men’s basketball shows this season, quickly demonstrated a keen media eye upon his arrival at the Stan Sheriff Center on Monday. “Where’s Christian?” Amis wondered within minutes of studying the Rainbow Warriors’ zone defense drills. It didn’t take too long to find out. Christian Standhardinger arrived halfway through the session in street clothes and his right elbow taped up thoroughly. The junior […]

No lineup determinations yet

By Brian McInnis on October 20, 2012

We’re just under two weeks out from the Hawaii men’s basketball team’s exhibition against Hawaii Pacific on Nov. 2, and under three weeks from the regular-season opener vs. Maryland-Eastern Shore on Nov. 9. That means lineup and rotation tweaks get a little less experimental and a little more solidified as the days advance. But the Rainbow Warriors are not solid or set there yet, UH coach Gib Arnold said after Saturday’s practice. “I’m mixing and matching,” Arnold responded to a […]

Getting the point

By Brian McInnis on October 14, 2012

One of the most interesting storylines around the Hawaii men’s basketball team all season will be point guard play. Jace Tavita has assumed the mantle of the starter after coming in from Utah nearly two years ago and redshirting since that time. Barring something drastic, he’ll get the bulk of the time at the position. But you can’t, obviously, have him responsible for all 40 minutes every game of the season. With no other traditional point guards on the roster […]

It's that time again

By Brian McInnis on October 9, 2012

Yup, it’s that time of year again. People formulate Halloween costume ideas, early holiday season plans and, most important of all, wild conspiracy theories on the content of UH basketball’s now-annual Ohana Hoopfest. What can we expect this year? A “Gangnam Style” performance? Gib Arnold vs. Laura Beeman in 1-on-1? All the Rainbow Warriors’ international players singing “It’s a Small World After All” complete with costume? Don’t rule anything out, but Friday night’s activities are slowly coming into focus. And whatever […]

Vander goes down

By Brian McInnis on September 27, 2012

There was one player over the rest that the Hawaii men’s basketball team couldn’t afford to lose for an extended period of time for the upcoming season. Of course, we’re talking about Vander Joaquim. Yet it’s Joaquim who is out for the next four to six weeks with a torn MCL in his right knee, suffered during a team workout session when bodies got tangled up and a teammate rolled into his leg. Before people hit the panic button repeatedly, know […]

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