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 athletics: NCAA to offer eligibility relief for spring sports student-athletes

By Brian McInnis on March 13, 2020

In very quick fashion, the NCAA responded to a groundswell of support for thousands of student-athletes affected by its decision Thursday to cancel its spring sports championships and effectively end the seasons — and in some cases, careers — for those players. The NCAA tweeted Friday, in part, that “eligibility relief is appropriate for all Division I student-athletes that participated in spring sports.” Division I Council Coordination Committee agrees eligibility relief is appropriate for spring sports: pic.twitter.com/u7hwYOyTDV — Inside the […]

Hawaii athletics: List of student-athletes expected to have senior years cut short due to coronavirus threat

By Brian McInnis on March 12, 2020

Some 56 University of Hawaii student-athletes were likely impacted more than the hundreds of others with Thursday’s news of NCAA sports championships being canceled through the spring. The seniors and graduate students. Some were at the tail end of their college careers, like the five basketball players who had the Big West tournaments pulled out from underneath them. Others were less than halfway through their season, like baseball and softball. Barring sports being reinstated in the coming weeks, or some […]

Hawaii athletics: NCAA cancels spring sports championships; reactions from UH coaches, players; some tickets to be refunded

By Brian McInnis on March 12, 2020

UPDATE: The NCAA officially canceled all spring sports championships, which appears to effectively end all seasonal University of Hawaii sports. Most notably for UH, the Hawaii men’s volleyball team will be unable to try for a title a year after reaching the NCAA championship game. UH also had top-five-ranked teams in beach volleyball and women’s water polo. NCAA cancels remaining winter and spring championships: https://t.co/qzKAS4McEI pic.twitter.com/G6XreZx35E — NCAA (@NCAA) March 12, 2020 UH athletics issued a statement for ticket holders […]

Hawaii women’s basketball: Rainbow Wahine down Cal State Fullerton for Big West semifinal berth

By Brian McInnis on March 11, 2020

The following appeared on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s breaking news: The Hawaii women’s basketball team locked down Cal State Fullerton, 72-59, Wednesday at a mostly empty Walter Pyramid to advance to the Big West tournament semifinals on Friday. No. 4 UH (16-14) faces No. 2 UC Santa Barbara (14-15) at 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. UH and UCSB split the regular-season series, with each team winning on the opponent’s home court. #HawaiiWBB coach Laura Beeman breaks […]

Hawaii athletics: So far, home events open to public as scheduled

By Brian McInnis on March 11, 2020

UPDATE: Things moved quickly, as by noon Thursday the NCAA had canceled March Madness and then all spring sports championships. The threat of a spreading coronavirus has caused a cascade of closures of athletic events worldwide, and especially within the U.S. in the last 24 hours. The NCAA Tournament followed suit with the Big West tournament and other events in announcing the drastic measure of barring the public from its upcoming games. Hawaii men’s volleyball could play before no crowds […]

Hawaii men’s basketball: Eddie Stansberry named Big West first-teamer

By Brian McInnis on March 9, 2020

Eddie Stansberry headed up Hawaii men’s basketball’s postseason honors by being named to All-Big West first team on Monday morning. The senior shooting guard, who ranks No. 4 on the UH career 3-point list and leads the team with 15.9 points per game, became UH’s first first-teamer since Noah Allen in 2016-17. His 90 3s this year is third in a UH single season. Senior forward/center Zigmars Raimo (9.3 points, 6.8 rebounds per game, 50 steals) was named an All-BWC […]

Hawaii women’s basketball: Julissa Tago, Amy Atwell head up Big West postseason awards for Rainbow Wahine

By Brian McInnis on March 9, 2020

Hawaii, the 4 seed in this week’s Big West tournament, received a modest haul of conference postseason awards announced this morning. Senior guard Julissa Tago and junior forward Amy Atwell headed up the Big West postseason awards for the Hawaii women’s basketball team announced by the conference this morning. Tago, who posted a 15.0 scoring average and became the 22nd member of the Rainbow Wahine 1,000-point club, was named to the All-BWC first team. Atwell, the most accurate 3-point shooter […]

Hawaii basketball: 4 seeds for Rainbow Warriors, Wahine

By Brian McInnis on March 8, 2020

Sixteen games of conference play brought the Hawaii men’s and women’s basketball teams to the same place on Saturday. That being, the 4 seed in next week’s Big West tournaments. With an 86-82 loss at Cal State Northridge for the men (8-8 Big West) and a 75-58 win over Cal Poly on senior night for the women (9-7), both squads landed pretty squarely in the middle of the pack. In the Rainbow Warriors’ case, that meant a matchup against UC […]

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