Meeting the press

All eight NCAA Tournament teams playing in Spokane, Wash., held press conferences for coaches and select players, then a public practice session at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena on Thursday.

UH had its Big Three of Aaron Valdes, Stefan Jankovic and Roderick Bobbitt take the podium, then held a shootaround before some more detailed work in a closed session.

Athletic director David Matlin said UH’s complement of 350 tickets has been exhausted. Everyone else will have to go to the secondary sales market if you’re still looking for seats.

Here were a few comments from the podium players and coach Eran Ganot:

Ganot: “Obviously, we’re very appreciative to be part of one of the greatest events in all of sports and all the world. These guys have really sacrificed, as every team in here, to put themselves in this position. We’re going to have a good time, find a great balance between having a good time and continuing to fight and get better. Looking forward to a tremendous challenge tomorrow against a really good Cal team, very well coached, very disciplined. Hope to share the similar foundation in terms of defending and rebounding and they’re a tremendous challenge. So this is what you live for and very pleased to be here.”

Jankovic on the NCAA spotlight: “It’s great. I think we earned it. We have been through a lot as a team, obviously, and the score group of guys, especially all the different coaches, all the adversity. So we’re just excited, and I think we have earned it, and I think we’re going to perform well tomorrow.”

Bobbitt on crowd support: “I think we have some pretty amazing fans to make that trip from Hawaii, because that flight isn’t easy. And especially coming up here (to Spokane) … add a couple hours onto it. That support we got in the Big West tournament, I didn’t honestly expect that. But it was phenomenal and it felt like we were in our arena. So to have them travel here, it’s huge.”

Valdes on putting it all on the line this season: “We found out (about the 2017 postseason ban) before the Northern Iowa game in the Diamond Head Classic, so I think going into that gave us a bit of a chip on our shoulder to play hard, knowing that we were not going to have a postseason next year. So I think our goal this year was just to make it to that (NCAA) tourney and hopefully, do some damage in it. We did a great job in that (Diamond Head) tournament, keeping our heads on and not letting it distract us. So we just got to keep doing it.”

Jankovic, the Big West Player of the Year, is getting some (deserved) attention.

Bows take to the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena floor for a very public practice pic.twitter.com/Wjx1aSeooo

— Brian McInnis (@Brian_McInnis) March 17, 2016

---

On Cal’s side, here’s a story on coach Cuonzo Martin and the sexual harassment scandal of his former assistant, Yann Hufnagel.

Here’s one on how the Golden Bears could adjust to the absence of point guard Tyrone Wallace, who broke his right hand in practice on Wednesday and will miss the game.

—————————

From Thursday, here was a video Hawaii athletics put together of some of the media members who’ve traveled with the team. Including your humble newspaper correspondent.

VIDEO: Media members reflect on #HawaiiMBB's and #HawaiiWBB's historic run to the @BigWestSports Tournament titles. https://t.co/KX0E58J5pL

— Hawaii Athletics (@HawaiiAthletics) March 17, 2016

—————————

Here’s some shots from Friday’s media day.