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

M. Thomas commits to UH

By Brian McInnis on September 24, 2012

It was a good day for the UH men’s basketball team on Monday with the oral commitment of Michael Thomas to play for the Rainbow Warriors starting in 2013-14. He’s the first pickup of that class for Gib Arnold, and privately the UH coaches are pretty excited about it. Thomas, of El Camino Real High near Los Angeles, first announced his decision on Twitter at about 10 a.m., then talked about it in a phone interview in the afternoon. It […]

Michael Thomas close to deciding

By Brian McInnis on September 23, 2012

Michael Thomas flew back to California on Sunday after spending Friday and Saturday as an official visitor with the Hawaii men’s basketball team. Among other things, the 6-foot-5 El Camino Real High senior guard/forward witnessed the team’s once-a-week 2-hour practice (allowed this time of year), UH’s early morning Saturday beach workout in Waikiki, and the UH football game/disaster against Nevada. He’s choosing between UH, UC Santa Barbara and Northern Arizona. Here’s a Q&A session from Thomas on his trip to […]

Visitor inbound

By Brian McInnis on September 20, 2012

The Hawaii men’s basketball team is poised to host its first visiting recruit of the 2013 class in Michael Thomas this weekend. Thomas, who has been offered a scholarship, is a 6-foot-5 senior at El Camino Real High in Los Angeles. He’s the type of athletic wing player UH coach Gib Arnold covets. Some Thomas highlights from his junior year can be seen here. They start around the 4:00 mark. He’s clearly got some bounce. The L.A. Times has reported […]

Redshirt prospects // Valdes update

By Brian McInnis on September 11, 2012

Sometime between now and the Nov. 9 start to the 2012-13 season, Gib Arnold and the Hawaii coaching staff must decide which, if any, players to redshirt. The idea or ideas behind redshirting a player is/are pretty straightforward. You maintain a season of eligibility while allowing the prospect to grow into a more developed player (and sometimes student) through the “farm system” of the scout team. You can alleviate logjams at positions too stocked with bodies, where not everyone will […]

Arnold on preseason battles

By Brian McInnis on August 28, 2012

With the fall semester under way, the Hawaii men’s basketball team has instituted workouts by position as well as player-run open gym sessions. With 15 of 16 players on the roster eligible to play this year, not everyone is in line for regular playing time. From the sound of it, the team pecking order is starting to sort itself out. UH coach Gib Arnold was asked today about the preseason positional battles. “I think Vander (Joaquim)’s pretty much set. Outside […]

Early outlook by position

By Brian McInnis on August 25, 2012

To quote Gene Hackman in “Hoosiers,” let’s see what kind of hand we’ve been dealt here. Gib Arnold added two players this week — forward Ozren Pavlovic of Croatia and guard Aaron Valdes of La Jolla Prep in California — which should finalize the 2012-13 Hawaii roster. The team’s got its full complement of players in school and has initiated open gym sessions. UH also updated its online roster with this year’s jersey numbers (listed in parentheses below). Let’s break it down, […]

Clock's ticking

By Brian McInnis on August 16, 2012

The holding pattern continues for the Hawaii men’s basketball team, even as the days are shrinking before the cutoff to potentially add a player for the 2012-13 season. The fall semester begins Aug. 20, but UH could theoretically squeeze a player through a week or two after that. Gib Arnold has a pair of scholarships available. To reiterate, Bullard High’s Aaric Armstead is not in the mix to join the Rainbow Warriors for this season. The prep school route is still […]

Solar Universe wins it // UH player summaries

By Brian McInnis on August 5, 2012

Congratulations to Solar Universe, which took home the 36th College Summer League championship on Saturday night with a 114-102 win in overtime over Flipbooks Hawaii. It was an incredibly intense game. It felt borderline out of control at times; only one technical foul was issued, but it felt like several more were warranted. The packed crowd lent to the frenzied atmosphere in the Manoa Park Gym, kudos to you if you showed up for the league finale. Brandon Spearman came […]

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