Hawaii men’s basketball: New-look ‘Bows take to new floor
It was fitting that the 2019-20 Hawaii men’s basketball team got in its first practice of the season on a brand-new floor.
There was a new theme in the lineup, a new assistant coach, and six new players on the roster to go with the sparkling court in the Stan Sheriff Center in the first full practice of the 2019-20 preseason on Saturday.
Fifth-year coach Eran Ganot is going with a “go big or go home” theme to begin the preseason as he prepares to shift away from a three-guard lineup into a more traditional one with a 7-foot center and a larger player on the wing to go with his bigger-than-average point guard Drew Buggs.
“There are some scenarios where this is a very big team,” Ganot said.
Forward Zigmars Raimo is shifting to power forward from an undersized center, where he played for most of last season as the Rainbow Warriors went 18-13 (9-7 Big West). Three-point shooting was one of Raimo’s biggest emphases of the offseason as he looks to build off his team-high 11.5 points per game from last season. You can read more on that in Sunday’s print edition of the Star-Advertiser.
“It was fine, it wasn’t perfect. I was expecting that, basically. We have a lot of new guys,” said Raimo, one of three seniors on the roster. “You could see they were kind of nervous. But as newcomers, as freshmen, those guys are talented. You could see that on the court. We need to keep going. We need to remember that little things matter.”
Senior forward Zigmars Raimo talked of his impressions of #HawaiiFB 2019-20 full practice Day 1. pic.twitter.com/hP424nOoid
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 29, 2019
New assistant coach Chris Gerlufsen, who arrived from the University of San Diego a few weeks ago to fill the void left by Adam Jacobsen’s departure, made himself heard as he helped put the Rainbow Warriors through their paces in various drills during Saturday’s three-hour session.
Officials were brought in for the last 45 minutes or so.
For the offensive-minded Gerlufsen, it felt like a standard first practice — except he’s just had to learn the skill-sets of the full roster, plus get to know the rest of the staff.
The drills begin. #HawaiiMBB pic.twitter.com/9cfZGeD3Fv
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 29, 2019
“Obviously it’s been kind of a whirlwind for me. Everything with the job happened in 10 days,” Gerlufsen said. “So before I knew it I was on a plane out here. It’s been great though. The staff’s been great. Coach Ganot’s been great. The players have been phenomenal. Super impressed with them as kids, and how they’ve gone about their business since I’ve gotten here.
“As you know it’s about establishing relationships and building trust with guys. I’ve been very impressed. I’m excited about the challenge ahead, but I think we have a chance to be pretty good.”
It was a little jarring not to have Jack Purchase, Brocke Stepteau and Sheriff Drammeh around; those mainstays had been a part of the program for the last four years. Five years, in Stepteau’s case.
Even Leland Green and Brandon Thomas had become familiar faces over the last three and two years, respectively.
The newcomers — senior Ahmed Ali and freshmen Bernardo da Silva, Justin Webster, Jessiya Villa, Kameron Ng and Garrett Cason — were trust fully in the mix Saturday. Only Ng, the reigning Star-Advertiser player of the year out of Saint Francis School, was not able to fully participate as he finishes recovering from an offseason ailment.
Ali was a late-offseason addition who became available in the transfer portal several weeks after Washington State hired Kyle Smith as its new head coach.
Like Gerlufsen, Ali has taken a crash course learning the attributes and tendencies of those around him over the last few weeks.
Newcomer Ahmed Ali, a 5-11 senior transfer from Washington State, talked about his impressions of his new #HawaiiFB teammates after a 3-hour practice on Day 1. pic.twitter.com/EmzrySrg2G
— Hawaii Warrior World (@hawaiiwworld) September 29, 2019
“The defensive schemes were a lot different, the way we hedge the ball screens, the way we rotate on defense,” said Ali, who averaged 7.3 points and 2.9 assists last year with the Cougars. “A lot of comes with being competitive. So if you play with a type of hunger, that will cover up for the defensive schemes.”
UH opens the season Nov. 8 against Florida A&M in the Outrigger Rainbow Classic.
Brian, I don’t recall if you can edit tweets, but if you can, you might want to change #HawaiiFB to #HawaiiMBB. I originally didn’t click on the videos in the tweets because I didn’t want to hear the basketball players talk about football. lol!
Thanks for the heads up. Got my hashtags crossed. I can’t edit them but I’ll add a corrector underneath.
Hashtag fixes won’t show up here in embedded tweets but will only appear underneath on the actual Twitter platform, unfortunately.
not sure if going “big” will help the team. the 3 bigs are not quick or fast enough to play either as a center or wing. when they play another team with quick/faster big men, they will be at a great disadvantage, the bigs won’t be able to contain the other team bigs. and the other wing men, both 6’6″ are too short and not enough heft to bang with teams with bigs who are quick and fast.
Hence not really excited about this year’s team. they lack good outside shooting and a strong inside game.
#4..not so sure why all the negatives feeling about this team when we haven’t been able to see what they can do.
This guy too slow..that guy to slow…etc. Give these kids a chance. I think we have added athleticism with the addition of Da Silva, Justin Webster and a healthy Owen Hulland.
There are lots of way to play basketball. We are going to win and lose as a team. Everybody will help everybody out. This is not the NBA where you have one guy hog cheesing the ball while others stand around and watch.
UC Irvine is a big team. Maybe Ganot is trying to create a team like than. Nothing is wrong with that.
I like the make up this team and will not be surprised if it challenge for the top spots.
We won 18 games with practically the same front line. We minus Jack Purchase who is really a wing player who was force to play down low.
We added Da Silva(who is athletic and has a 7-2 wing span), get a healthy Owen Hulland, an improved Justin Hemlsey, and a more experienced Dawson Carper.
UH now have Ahmet Ali who started at Washington State in place of Brocke Stepteau and Justin Webster in place of Brandon Thomas. Jessiya Villa instead of Leland Green.
I say we upgrade the talent level at every position.
How many teams have big men that are quick and skillful? If so, they should be a top ranked team and not many players will be able to stop them. The bigs we have seem to be more than competitive and athletic enough to hold their own. Every team has strengths and weaknesses so ultimately it comes down to coaching strategies, developing the players, and executing on a consistent basis.
Thanks Brian for the in-depth Day One report.
I think this group has a lot of potential. What’s in question is how fast the newcomers pick up the system and how well everyone gels. Hopefully, as with Wahine volleyball, the turnover in the roster will result in a deeper and more competitive team.
Anybody seen Hulland in practice? Brian? How’s he looking? Mahalo.
Hulland’s been in the mix in the middle. Right now seems like he’s working on that part of his game instead of popping from outside. Dawson Carper and Mate Colina have a head start there right now based on last year.
Hard to get excited about this team. Sorry.
When other teams had a 7-footer, I wished we had one. Now we have THREE ! Add a couple of 6-9 guys. And a few 6-6, 6-7 ones too. Man, the Warriors are tall ! Add in a 6-3 point guard and wha-lah ! Wait, who’s the 3-pt threat? Who’s going to crash the boards? Guess Ganot will figure all that out. Should be a good season.
@ rabbit ears
Then stay in your rabbit hole if this team bores you.