Gameday: at Long Beach State

Would it surprise anyone if Hawaii rallied in the face of more off-court distractions and found a way to win at Long Beach State today?

The UH players and coaches have surely heard plenty about Friday’s news, and the topic will be magnified with the 2 p.m. (HST) game at the Walter Pyramid broadcast on ESPN3.

UH is a considerable underdog in this one, if you go by betting lines (minus-8.5). But Benjy Taylor‘s group has had a knack for playing at an elevated level with their backs to the wall.

LBSU senior point guard Mike Caffey, who’s in approximately his ninth year with The Beach, has a history of big plays against the Rainbow Warriors. He’s taken his game up a notch this season, and is coming off a ridiculous scoring binge to lead his team to an overtime comeback win on Thursday. LBSU was down 11 points with under five minutes to play in regulation at Cal State Fullerton, but Caffey scored 18 points from that point on.

This game could be one of the biggest tests of UH’s defensive pressure. When Roderick Bobbitt started forcing turnovers aplenty early in the season, this matchup was one that was brought up the most.

Dan Monson‘s team tends to go 11 deep. If a player or two seems rattled by UH’s ball pressure, don’t be surprised if that person gets a quick pull in favor of someone else. (Don’t expect Caffey to get rattled.)

UH has come close winning at the Pyramid in the past. It’s now one of just two Big West sites (along with Cal Poly) UH has yet to win at as a league member. UH’s last win (and only to date) at LBSU came in a 93-78 ESPN BracketBusters decision on Feb. 7, 2007.

LBSU has won three of the last four meetings overall.