‘Bows still in shakeup mode

The nonconference season is over for the Hawaii men’s basketball team. The time for lineup tweaking isn’t, necessarily.

With a switched-up rotation and coming off a disappointing Christmas Day loss to Ole Miss, the Hawaii men’s basketball team presses ahead to its debut in the Big West Conference. UH (6-5) takes on Cal State Northridge (9-3) to open up league play at home on Saturday.

UH coach Gib Arnold threw everyone a curveball when he started a freshman backcourt of Manroop Clair and Brandon Jawato for the final two games of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, bumping senior captains Jace Tavita and Hauns Brereton to secondary roles, at least temporarily.

"I foresee (the older players) playing whatever minutes they get, and play as hard as they can," Arnold said on Wednesday. "That’s the role of a team. Never a discussion on this team, who starts. Guys do their roles."

Tavita, who was ejected vs. Chaminade on Dec. 15, came off the bench in all three tourney games, losses against Miami and Ole Miss and a win over East Tennessee State for a sixth-place UH finish. Brereton’s ongoing shooting struggles — 37.9 percent for the season — meant he was on the outs from the starting five for the last two games. Junior guard Brandon Spearman has also come off the bench since UH went to a three-big lineup beginning against the Silverswords.

Freshman forward Isaac Fotu, a starter the past four games, said "both" to a question of whether the shakeups have helped or put a strain on the team.

"It’s helped us a lot as well," Fotu said. "We’re always trying to look where our biggest strengths are, even if it means some of the seniors don’t play as much. I think they’ll bounce back. I don’t think they’ll sit back and take a back seat. … It’ll be good, get them motivated."

By the end of the 81-66 defeat at the hands of the Rebels in the DHC consolation championship, Tavita had reasserted himself with eight assists in 31 minutes off the bench, playing alongside Clair (36 minutes) in heavy doses against a pressing team.

But Brereton, one of the team’s best shooters, went scoreless the last two games of the tournament, playing a season low in minutes both times — nine and five. He scored a career-high 24 points in the season opener vs. Maryland-Eastern Shore but has struggled since and watched his scoring average dip to 8.4.

Spearman, the team’s third-leading scorer behind senior Vander Joaquim and junior Christian Standhardinger, has found a way to stay productive since shifting to a reserve role the past four games. He scored in double figures twice and was in for key stretches against Ole Miss.

"I really don’t question what I can’t control," Spearman said. "Change has been made, but I’m still going to play basketball the way I know how to play basketball. Still do what Coach Gib wants me to do on the floor, I do it for him. That’s pretty much it."

There might be more change coming. Only Standhardinger has started all 11 games.

"Every game’s going to be a little different based upon scout, based upon the strengths of our players," Arnold said. "One thing we wanted to do was get some of our younger guys a little more time than we had in the past, to prepare for the Big West. Manroop played a lot of minutes, Jawato played more minutes. That was good. That’ll help prepare them for the Big West, and I think that will help us. Whether or not it covers this (CSUN) game or the next game, it doesn’t matter."

Clair and Jawato shot a combined 3-for-13 against the Rebels, with Clair nearly going the distance (36 minutes) and Jawato being spelled early by Spearman. The game was tied at 63-all, but UH gave up a critical 10-0 run in the final minutes.

UH’s tournament finale was notable for another reason, too. Senior center Vander Joaquim, the team’s third captain, looked his healthiest yet this season and had a career game in the loss, going for a personal-best 29 points on 11-for-21 shooting with 15 rebounds and two blocks.

In the DHC, Joaquim moved past Haim Shimonovich for fourth on the UH career rebounding list at 656, and he leapfrogged both Terry Houston and Al Davis into 19th on the career scoring chart at 934.