The elder statesman of the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors wore a wide grin as he stepped off the court from an honest-to-goodness full basketball practice.
It felt good to be back.
“I loved it, man,” fifth-year senior forward Mike Thomas said. “Just being with my teammates again. Because I didn’t practice at all last year, live. And so it was just fun to be back out there competing and getting after guys. Trying to inspire as much as possible with energy and effort. I had a great time.”
Thomas, who redshirted and was mostly a spectator last season following wrist surgery, set the tone of a vigorous Day 1 in the Stan Sheriff Center on Friday. UH gets 29 more full practices leading up to the 2017-18 season opener Nov. 10 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Third-year coach Eran Ganot marveled at the longest-tenured ’Bow (coaches included), who was last officially seen recording a 19-point, 11-rebound double-double against Maryland in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
“He’s put himself in position to have a terrific senior year, in terms of the mental approach, the physical approach,” Ganot said. “He’s in the best shape of his life. He’s really been gearing up for this.”
The word “continuity” was batted around quite a bit at practice. With Thomas and fellow senior post man Gibson Johnson, UH has experience to turn to, unlike this time last year, when the roster was reconstructed in the wake of the NCAA’s now-rescinded sanctions on the program. There was a single notable loss, but it was a big one — Big West first-teamer Noah Allen.
Ten returnees and four newcomers trained together since the summer.
“Whether we have them all back or none back, we’re going to start from the foundation. The baby steps,” Ganot said.
“You don’t want to make any preconceived notions or predictions, because it’s great when it clicks. And the guys who are clicking right now are naturally the returners. That doesn’t mean that will be the case a week or two from now.”
Point guard is the position battle to watch right now, with incumbent Brocke Stepteau, redshirt freshman Drew Buggs and junior college transfer Jaaron Stallworth engaging in a free-for-all. Even Sheriff Drammeh and Leland Green rotated in at the position on Friday, reinforcing the team’s belief in playing multiple ball-handlers together.
The 6-foot-1 Stallworth is coming off a broken right leg and dislocated ankle suffered at Yuba (Calif.) College. He spent most of the offseason recovering and was just cleared for contact. He rated himself “close to 100 percent” but knows he’s dealing with a steeper learning curve than his peers.
“Well, we got a bunch of guys in front of me who’ve been here for a while,” Stallworth said. “So I gotta earn my stripes. They’re pushing me to be great, and I’m trying to push them to be great. We’ll see at the end where it all pans out.”
Buggs, who’s coming off a redshirt year to make a complete recovery from a knee injury, had his Day 1 cut short as his upper body collided with a teammate during contact drills midway through. He wore his right arm in a sling the rest of the way.
“I know we’re on it,” Ganot said. “He had a collision today in practice, which you’re going to have sometimes. He was there the rest of practice picking up his guys, watching from afar. I know he’s feeling better than when it first happened at that point of contact.”
No Tip-off Marathon
UH will not play a midnight game this season in the ESPN College Hoops Tip-off Marathon, which appears to be defunct. UH had participated in all previous nine years of the event.
The Rainbows’ game against Troy to cap the Rainbow Classic on Nov. 13 would’ve been the midnight game this year.
UH adds walk-on
The Rainbows added a 15th player to their roster in walk-on forward Trevor LaCount, a 6-foot-7 junior out of Ventura (Calif.) College.
“He’s incredibly behind in terms of what we’re doing, but he can help us in practice and we’ll see where it goes from there,” Ganot said.
