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

‘Bows open at their collective best

By Brian McInnis on November 9, 2018

Hawaii played something more akin to hot potato than basketball for much of Friday night’s 2018-19 season opener against Portland. The Rainbow Warriors peppered the ball around the halfcourt and even a little in transition. It rarely stuck to anyone’s mitts for long, and the box score bore witness — UH assisted on 22 of its 31 field goals and had just nine turnovers in the 82-64 win on Friday night. Even without UH’s top returning scorer, Sheriff Drammeh, in action, […]

Who will lead 2018-19 ‘Bows in scoring?

By Brian McInnis on November 8, 2018

As the 2018-19 gets underway for the Hawaii men’s basketball team on Friday night, an interesting question arises: Who will be the Rainbow Warriors’ leading scorer? Usually, you’ve got a couple of clear-cut responses to that query. Fifth-year senior Mike Thomas was the logical leader going into 2017-18 and followed through with a team-best 13.1 points per game. You had a feeling Noah Allen would emerge as the guy the year before that. But this year? You could make a […]

Beeman: ‘We’ll be more than OK’ after opening loss

By Brian McInnis on November 7, 2018

Pepperdine guard Paige Fecske sprinted along the baseline, came around a curl and launched a stop-and-pop 3 that circled the rim and dropped through with 10 seconds left, a successful designed play by the trailing (now leading) Waves coming out of a timeout. Hawaii was unable to respond in kind — its play after timeout was busted and newcomer Savannah Reier had the best option remaining, a tough mid-range leaner that came up short with about five or four seconds […]

2018-19 Rainbow Wahine basketball preview

By Brian McInnis on November 6, 2018

The Hawaii women’s basketball team hopes to reverse course beginning tonight against Pepperdine to launch the 2018-19 season. UH, 12-18 the last two seasons, lost top scorer Sarah Toeaina but has its Nos. 2 through 9 scorers back. Here’s what ran in today’s print edition of the Star-Advertiser, as seventh-year coach Laura Beeman resolved her team would be better this season. The Wahine are counting on versatility as a strong suit this season. “We’ve got a lot of different lineups […]

Football Throwbacks: Utah State

By Brian McInnis on November 3, 2018

There’s throwbacks, and then there’s all-the-way-backs. Today’s edition of Warrior World’s “Football Throwbacks” is decidedly the latter. The first meeting between Hawaii and today’s opponent, Utah State, occurred back in 1927 — representing one of the first all-collegiate matchups to occur on Oahu. USU, ranked No. 18 going into today’s matchup at Aloha Stadium, has decisively gotten the better of UH since the two made the transition from the WAC to the Mountain West. The Aggies are 3-0 in MWC matchups, […]

‘Raimoceros’ leads UH charge over HPU

By Brian McInnis on November 2, 2018

Are we living in the Year of the Rhino? It’s a fair question to ask after watching Hawaii forward Zigmars Raimo — “The Raimoceros,” as Kanoa Leahey dubbed him courtside — charge headlong into the fray and come out without so much as a scratch in the Rainbow Warriors’ 81-45 exhibition victory over Hawaii Pacific on Friday night. The 6-foot-8 junior, a role player by reputation the last two years, looks poised for a breakout season. Raimo beasted his way to […]

UH looks to posts post-Toeaina

By Brian McInnis on November 1, 2018

The size disparity will almost certainly not be as glaring as it was on Thursday, when Hawaii was head and shoulders above Hawaii Hilo in a preseason exhibition at the Stan Sheriff Center. But UH thinks it has something it can turn to in the post-Sarah Toeaina chapter of Rainbow Wahine basketball — posts. The Rainbow Wahine tuned up for their 2018-19 season opener by towering over the overmatched Vulcans, 62-26, in front of a smattering of fans and other onlookers […]

Strom-Okimoto is offensive player of the year

By Brian McInnis on October 31, 2018

Emotions were still a bit raw for the Hawaii soccer team a few days removed from its season-ending home loss to Cal State Fullerton on Sunday. As pick-me-ups go, Wednesday’s Big West Conference awards announcement did quite nicely. Senior striker Raisa Strom-Okimoto became Hawaii’s first Big West offensive player of the year, and she was joined by sophomore Lei Medeiros on the All-BWC first team. Goalkeeper Lex Mata was a Big West honorable mention and center back Elena Palacios made […]

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