It took nearly the entire season, but the team Hawai’i puts on the floor as hosts at the Stan Sheriff Center and the team it puts on the hardwood as visitors finally have begun to merge. Now that all that
It took nearly the entire season, but the team Hawai’i puts on the floor as hosts at the Stan Sheriff Center and the team it puts on the hardwood as visitors finally have begun to merge.
Now that all that hosting and visiting is finished, the Warriors have three days to prove their collective merit in a semi-neutral setting.
Hawai’i is in Tulsa, preparing for Thursday’s showdown with Texas Christian at 9:30 a.m. HST in the first round of the WAC tournament. Just weeks ago in danger of falling into the ghastly eight-seed vs. nine-seed game, the UH caught fire late in the season, finishing with four wins in its final five contests, and securing the fifth seed in the tourney. The Horned Frogs enter as the fourth seed.
“We don’t see this as an away game,” Hawai’i head coach Riley Wallace said via telephone from Tulsa. “It’s a neutral setting, and we feel like we’ve got a pretty good shot in a neutral setting.
“There are things we have to do right defensively, but I feel like we got a pretty good draw.”
The Warriors ended the regular season 13-5 at home, and a humbling 1-8 as visitors. However, Texas-El Paso is the only team the UH failed to defeat this season. Within the islands’ friendly confines, Hawai’i was able to push then-No. 6 Tennessee to the limit and handily defeat a ranked Fresno State squad. On the road, the Warriors could hardly hold their heads up against Nevada, however.
“The road has been a tough thing for us,” Wallace said. “But I felt like we played our best road game of the year Saturday night, even though we didn’t get the win.”
In that game, the UH lost 85-77 at UTEP, though it trailed just 75-74 with two minutes remaining.
“There were about 12,000 fans there,” Wallace said. “And we let the emotion play us out of our style. That allowed UTEP to go on a run and build the lead.
“But we did a good job of fighting back and holding on.”
Wallace said he feels like his club is peaking at just the right time, but that the game against the Miners highlighted — again — the Warriors’ chief deficiency.
“We just have to defend people better,” the coach said. “Our offense is fine, but we’ve got to play better defense.”
The UH is tied for fifth in the conference, yielding 74 ppg. That said, offense will take center stage Thursday, when the Warriors face TCU. The teams split their regular-season contests; in each, the winner topped the century mark on the scoreboard. At 94.7 points per game, the Horned Frogs led the nation in scoring.
“Our offense has to be in order against them,” Wallace said. “Odds are, they’re not going to have an off-night, and if they do, not by much.”
Wallace said his club may have had its finest offensive outing of the season in the teams’ most recent meeting, February 22, in Honolulu. Five Warriors finished the game in double figures, and senior Troy Ostler was the only member of the starting five to shoot less than 50 percent from the field.
“We were working the ball around, making the extra pass in that game,” Wallace said. “We were beating their press and not getting caught in the half-court trap. Those are things we’ll need again if we are to win.”
Though still a threat to win the whole tournament, TCU certainly does not pack the punch it did early in the season. For undisclosed reasons, Myron Anthony and Greedy Daniels were dismissed from the team three weeks ago. Between them, the starters led the Horned Frogs in a host of offensive categories.
“That just means they aren’t as deep,” Wallace said. “They can still put five guys out there who can beat just about anybody. It means that if you get them in foul trouble, though, they can’t go as deep into their bench.”
Should the Warriors win, they would face a Friday date with, most likely, Fresno State, the top seed in the tourney.
Of note: Hawai’i will have to go this WAC tournament alone. Wallace said that while normally the band, dance team and cheerleaders would have accompanied the Warriors to Tulsa, funds wouldn’t allow it this year.
“We aren’t really going to have anybody in our corner here,” the coach said. “For financial reasons, we had to leave them behind. It’s a good thing we’ve got the afternoon game here. Hopefully, there won’t hardly be anybody here.”
In addition: Junior Predrag Savovic was named first-team all-WAC on Monday. The Yugoslavian guard averaged 17.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists for the Warriors this season. Wallace said he was disappointed that Ostler was not selected for either the first or second team. Freshman Phil Martin, however, was selected to the all-newcomer team. The 6-foot-7 forward from Canada averaged 9.6 points and 4.4 rebounds this year, and “is way ahead of schedule,” according to his coach.
Also in Tulsa
Whereas the men must play from the five spot, the Hawai’i women’s team begins Thursday’s WAC tournament as the second seed. The Wahine (21-6, 12-4 WAC) face Tulsa (8-20, 4-12) at 3:30 p.m. Hawai’i defeated the Golden Hurricane 54-45 in Tulsa on January 16, and 63-53 in Honolulu on January 26.
The game can be heard live on AM 720.
