2015-16 schedule look-ahead
While Hawaii fans are still likely reeling from Wednesday night’s 61-57 overtime loss at home to Cal Poly (a painful one, I realize) here’s an early look ahead to some names that might appear on the 2015-16 nonconference schedule.
Interim coach Benjy Taylor has been in charge of scheduling most of his five-year tenure at UH, so it’s no big surprise he’s putting thought into that for next year — and beyond — even with his stewardship of the program not a given going into next year.
Here were some recent comments from Taylor about the schedule.
>> On possible inclusion in the Las Vegas Invitational
“I met with the administration and we’ve talked, and I just think our program’s in a place now where we need to play in an exempt tournament every year … like the one we played in Florida. We’re in the process of negotiating (the Las Vegas Invitational) where we play at San Diego State and at Cal. That’s part of the tournament. Hopefully we can get finalized. And then you go for two more games in Vegas.”
>> On the Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic
“We’ve secured Montana State, Prairie View (A&M) and Nevada for the Rainbow next year. So I like that, bring some familiarity back here. I think the fans would like to see Nevada come back in here. We’ll play them in the marathon game, that midnight game.”
>> On a lengthy series of Boise State in the works:
“We’re close to securing a four-year deal with Boise. Home and home, two and two over four years.”
>> On games against local Division II teams:
“I want to move to playing Chaminade on an outer island or an away game situation, and make it an annual thing. I would like to play Hilo, BYU (Hawaii) and HPU in an exhibition game. I think the (closed door) scrimmages were fine, but I’d like to play two exhibitions so it gives our fans a little more of a taste going into the season. You see us twice (instead of once).”
>> On overall scheduling philosophy
“That’s just the process. I want to kinda increase the meat of our schedule a little bit and move forward.”
As well as the teams mentioned above as scheduling possibilities, the 2015 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic field is complete. The field (besides host UH) is Auburn, BYU, Harvard, New Mexico, Northern Iowa, Oklahoma and Washington State.
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Update on guard Brandon Jawato, who was not on the bench for the Cal Poly game. Jawato was sick.
Please no more DII games. One or two as exhibitions is good enough. And please bring in some teams other than SWAC teams. Never going to fill that arena with that kind of schedule.
Mr. Taylor, the last game scheduled on the Big Island was in Kona, which is a two-hour drive from Hilo, where most Rainbow fans live. Please schedule future games in Hilo! The Afook-Chinen auditorium would be fine.
It’s good to see Coach Taylor working on getting some MWC teams on the schedule, via both the Las Vegas tournament and home-and-home deals. That’s a strong basketball conference and those are programs we want to measure ourselves against and be competitive with. And I think those are good match ups for drawing fans to the arena since we play those schools in football.