Fresh semester, fresh start? // Kuehu matchup not to be
The Hawaii men’s basketball team had little choice but to practice light on Monday, the start of the spring semester. A few of the first-year UH players had to miss practice to arrange time to declare a major, so the Rainbow Warriors did myriad shooting contests (which many of you will point out they could use right now) and some light offensive set work.
Today was back to a standard-issue practice in Gym 2, the team’s last before it departs for Las Cruces, N.M., site of Thursday’s game against New Mexico State, where the Rainbows will try to halt an 0-4 start to the Western Athletic Conference season.
The team leaves tonight for Dallas, then flies west to El Paso and will arrive by bus tomorrow in Las Cruces.
The good news for the slumping (9-7 overall) ‘Bows: everyone is healthy, and senior forward Bill Amis continues to look sharp in practices. Now he’s just got to find a way to make that translate to game nights, as he did through four games of nonconference play.
“We’re all staying together as a team, and as a whole family and work through this,” Amis said after today’s practice. “We’ve just been in a little slump. … It’s about getting into a rhythm for me. I’ve only played a few games in two years now, so I just need to get a rhythm out there.”
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It didn’t happen last year, and won’t happen this year — in the first of two possible games, anyway.
Twin sisters Shawna Kuehu (Hawaii) and Shaena Kuehu (Idaho) still won’t play each other for the first time in a real game on Thursday. That’s because Shaena has been out the last five games for Idaho for medical reasons, and a UI team spokesperson confirmed she will remain out for the UH game in Moscow, as she is back in the islands.
Shaena started the first nine games of the season for the Vandals, averaging 6.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.
Shawna missed the entire WAC season last year with a torn ACL suffered just a few games into the season, preventing the first possible matchups between the two former Punahou teammates. And no, collegiate summer league games don’t count.
We’ll see if Shaena is recovered by Feb. 5, when the Vandals and Rainbow Wahine meet in Honolulu.
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Also, senior forward Allie Patterson’s recent absence on the Wahine bench was because of a medical issue that forced her to visit the hospital, she said. Patterson — who had a starting job in the UH frontcourt at the start of the season — hasn’t played in five straight games. She hasn’t practiced lately while she recovers, and won’t be making the first leg of this five-road-games-in-a-row stretch to Idaho and Boise State. She said she hopes to regroup with the team next week when it returns to Hawaii prior to the second stretch, at San Jose State, Fresno State and Utah State.
Brian, thanks as always for giving us these updates. It is like you are filling in what the conventional sports news for Rainbow Warriors manage to leave out. So, thank you. Portnoy’s rants are neat, but, you give us needed updates on Warrior b-ball. Please get a radio show as well.
Hope Allie gets better 🙁 .
C’mon men Warriors . . . shock all with a road win!!!! 😉
unbelievale string of seasons for both programs. UHAD continues with its entitlement approach towards coaching. Wasted years will soon turn to a wasted decade….
Will Katie get a medical redshirt, since she already used her regular redshirt.
terrible programs sucking the life out of UHAD
“Too Many Mind, No Mind”… right now I think the problem the boys are having on the court is because they are overthinking too much. Thinking too much about being in the right position, running the proper set correctly, etc, etc, etc. The team is young, the Coach has a new style offense, everyone is learning there will be growing pains. What happened in the beginning of the season with the wins was first of all against subpar competition and we just had overall better talent on our team than the others. It also seemed as though the boys were just playing and having fun. Now when I watch them play, it’s like there’s no pep in their step, no swagger on the court at all. They seem like they are overthinking too much and not letting the game come to them. Seems like they are trying to hard and not settling in to the flow of the game. Coach Gib needs to allow the boys to work through their mistakes, allow them to adjust with the flow of the game instead of yanking players too often without giving them an honest chance to settle in. I also think Coach needs to use more of his weapons wisely. Joston Thomas needs to see more touches and start being more of the go to guy. I know Zane Johnson has been scoring but he’s all outside and has no inside game. Same with Bo Barnes more of just a spot up shooter and all outside. I haven’t seen either able to dribble penetrate nor create their own shots off the dribble. Zane here and there but Bo never. Hiram does what he can but gets really no help from the other guards. Bobby Miles-Serrano is still young and sporadic with his play, he too needs to be more creative and protect the ball better. Trevor Wiseman is a guy that is just solid and he could help in handling the rock too, not sure why he doesn’t. We all know Bill Amis is the main guy but he’s still getting his feet under him right now so we can’t rely on him to be effective right away. Vander has stepped up nicely but needs to have more of an impact on the defensive side of the ball. Kurtz is another guy that needs to play up to his size. He needs to be a banger and intimidate in the paint, which has not happened yet. To me he’s too soft and not aggresive enough with all that size. Needs to throw his body around and hold down the paint.
Anyway, I hope things turn around for our basketball team and I’m sure it will. As for the womans team, I see lots of potential, its just a matter of them putting all the pieces together and figuring out how each piece can contribute in their own way. Keisha, Kamilah, Megan, and Shawna are a good core group to build upon.
Since I’ve seen Kalei Adolpho play volleyball at the Iolani Classic, any info on the 2011 state basketball tournament dates, I’m really want to watch Kalei play BB before she comes to UH. I think its coming up soon.
Looked at the game notes for the Wahine vs Idaho, Idaho roster has no Kuehu, so I went to the Idaho womens basketball roster and sure enough no Kuehu. So it looks like to me that no Kuehu match at all this year. When Shawna-Lei Kuehu and Mai Ayabe had ACL’s, never taken off UH roster.