Court Sense

Tough news for the UH basketball team today, with senior forward Bill Amis set to miss about five weeks with a stress fracture in his right foot, the same foot that caused him to miss all of last season. Expect the other Rainbows bigs, Vander Joaquim, Douglas Kurtz and Joston Thomas, to see a greater workload while Amis recovers. Per our Jason Kaneshiro, who was at practice today, Amis will try for a return for the Western Athletic Conference opener […]

An EA Sports Maui Invitational tournament representative said he thought today’s pre-tourney coaches press conference was one of the goofier sessions in recent years. The best-known names at the podium — UConn’s Jim Calhoun, Kentucky’s John Calipari and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo — mixed in some humor to their standard thoughts about their teams and thoughts leading into the tournament. So did Matt Mahar, the self-deprecating coach of Chaminade, the Division II host. “Our overall record for this week is 1-0. […]

Hey all, Taking a leave from duties with the Hawaii men and women’s basketball teams for a few days to cover the EA Sports Maui Invitational in Lahaina. Veteran hoops writers Jason Kaneshiro and Cindy Luis have my back on UH hoops while I’m away. Thanks guys. I’ll toss up some updates starting tomorrow, when coaches from all eight teams — Michigan State, Kentucky, Connecticut, Washington, Oklahoma, Wichita State, Virginia and Chaminade — have their introductory press conference. First-round games […]

Aside from Gib Arnold’s brief line in today’s newspaper — “I’m excited for the football team. We will wait and see what the next move is for the other sports” — the Hawaii basketball coach wanted to withhold comment on a potential switch to the Big West Conference until something official is announced. The Big West, with all of its schools currently located in California, isn’t known as a power hoops conference. It’s best team in recent years has been […]

Hawaii isn’t the only Western Athletic Conference team to get off to a good start. Overall, WAC teams are 14-6 as of Thursday morning. Granted, some of the games were against non-Division I competition. Here’s the breakdown, with UH topping the nonconference standings at 3-0. Hawaii: 3-0. Wins — Montana State (77-59), Cal State Fullerton (84-70), Central Michigan (65-62) New Mexico State: 2-0. Wins — Louisiana Lafayette (92-76), West New Mexico (95-62) San Jose State: 2-0. Wins — at Eastern […]

Gib Arnold and Hawaii beat the buzzer on Morningside (Calif.) High guard Gerry Blakes. Blakes got his paperwork completed today, on the final day of the fall signing period. Arnold was anxious to get him on board in the early period because Blakes, an under-the-radar player after missing much of his junior season with an injury, could explode on the national scene during his upcoming senior season. UH has one scholarship remaining to fill for the 2011-12 season. Arnold said […]

As the headline of today’s blog implies, today was a break for the 3-0 Rainbow Warriors following their claim of the 47th Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic tournament title. Well, a break from practice, maybe, but the players still had to report for classes in the morning. “We all got class. Coach Arnold’s going to be out there checking. Himself. Personally, is what he says,” forward Bill Amis said following the  65-62 win over Central Michigan early this morning. They only […]

Hawaii’s terrific start to the season was provided in large part by the only player to start throughout last year’s dismal 10-20 campaign. Senior point guard Hiram Thompson was named the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week for career games against Montana State and Cal State Fullerton, both UH wins (77-59 and 84-70, respectively). He averaged 19.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game and is shooting 66.7 percent from the field. “I wish I could bottle that […]