Gameday: Cal Poly

In what has become Big West tradition, Hawaii opens up Big West Conference play with nemesis Cal Poly.

It is the third straight year the teams have met to kick off the BWC, including two consecutive at the Stan Sheriff Center. Poly has won the last two openers, including last year’s game in overtime.

UPDATE: The line for this game, once UH by 9.5, is up to 10.5. Interesting.

Coach Eran Ganot made an appeal Tuesday night for fans to come out in force, just before UH appealed the NCAA to take away the postseason ban for the 2016-17 season.

Unlike last year, when UH had some key injuries, the Rainbows are firing on all cylinders heading into this one. Roderick Bobbitt and Aaron Valdes in particular have posted some eye-popping stats of late. That’s been enough to carry some light scoring outputs from UH’s primary bench scorers, but you’d like to see Isaac Fleming or Sai Tummala get it going. Neither has scored in double figures the last four games.

For Poly, it starts with the explosive David Nwaba, who leads the team in points, rebounds and assists. Reese Morgan hit the big shots in Poly’s win here last year and is still a deadly shooter.

Cal Poly coach Joe Callero mentioned injuries to key players Brian Bennett, Joel Awich and Ridge Shipley leading into the game, but it sounds like all three will play in some form.