’Bows and Utes’ history dates to WAC days

The Hawaii basketball team’s historical success at Utah can be summed up in one play.

Crosetti Speight’s prayer from inside halfcourt — the “Speight Special,” as the Honolulu Advertiser called it — found the net at the buzzer for a 69-68 WAC win on Feb. 16, 1984. There was some controversy around the play; the Utes contended UH forward Greg Hicks interfered with the ball on its path into the hoop.

But for once, things worked out for the Rainbow Warriors — there was no call reversal — at what is now known as the Jon M. Huntsman Center, a 15,000-seat arena where the ’Bows are 1-22 all-time.

Today, UH (4-1) visits it for the first time since 1999, in its lone nonconference road game of the season.

Utah bolted the WAC in 1999 as a founding Mountain West member. The Runnin’ Utes continued their upward trajectory, joining the Pac-12 in 2011.

This year’s edition is big, balanced and unbeaten at home (4-0).

“They’re a program — a high-level program, a perennial postseason team,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “They have balance on both sides of the ball, they’re well coached, and now they have the experience factor, too. They’ve always done a good job, too, of developing players, so their guys have all gotten better.”

UH practiced at nearby Division II school Westminster College on Friday, seeking ways to improve the lopsided 48-10 all-time series. Utah has many of the same weapons it used to dispatch UH 66-52 in the Diamond Head Classic consolation semifinals last season en route to the NIT.

The Utes, as a Pac-12 member for the past six seasons, have money to burn. Manoa was to receive a guarantee of $105,000 for its appearance in Salt Lake City.

“It’s been huge (from) their move,” said UH forward Gibson Johnson, a native of nearby Centerville, who as a child spent time on the Huntsman court for camps and games. “The money that they’re getting, the recruits now that they’re getting. That’s been massive. It’s been obvious, too, in the state because Utah going to (the) Pac-12 has put a bunch of pressure on BYU.”

After a two-year church mission to Brazil, Johnson enrolled at Utah for a semester but didn’t play. It helped him gain a foothold at Salt Lake Community College, where he was teammates with 6-foot-10 Utah center Tyler Rawson (10.8 ppg).

Johnson (12.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg) grew up wanting to be a Ute.

“Probably my whole life,” said Johnson, who expects about “60 to 70” friends and family members in the crowd. “Because my dad played golf there, so that’s where I wanted to end up. But didn’t work out like that, so now I have a chance to beat ’em.”

Brocke Stepteau (9.6 ppg) has been UH’s most steady player, with four double-digit scoring games and 69.6 percent shooting from the field (16-for-23). The 5-foot-9 point guard goes up against a familiar, diminutive counterpart in Utah’s 5-8 Justin Bibbins (10.5 ppg, 4.5 apg), a Long Beach State graduate transfer.

Coming off a 27-point loss to UNLV in Las Vegas, the Utes got 24 points from big man David Collette in an 85-69 home win over Eastern Washington on Nov. 24. But coach Larry Krystkowiak’s team goes beyond Collette (14.7 ppg) and Bibbins; three others average double figures.

“I have always thought it’s nice when you don’t have someone at the top of the scouting report and if they have an off night maybe your team can’t function,” Krystkowiak said in the EWU postgame press conference. “I think we’ve proven to have five or six guys that could put up some pretty good numbers from an offensive point of view.”

For UH, it will help if forward Jack Purchase adds to the scoring effort, especially while Mike Thomas is day-to-day with a sore left wrist. Purchase, the team’s leading rebounder (6.8) and assist man (4.6), is scoreless in the past two games and has missed 13 straight shots.

These ’Bows inherited a 13-game losing streak on the Utes’ court and are considerable underdogs today. However, as Crosetti Speight proved nearly 34 years ago, one special basket can make all the difference.