’Bows to be tested against Utah Valley

Experience often comes at a premium in college basketball. It can also be tough to quantify.

Not so tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center, where three of the four oldest players in NCAA Division I will congregate on the same floor boards for a 5 p.m. shuffle.

Hawaii center Gibson Johnson is a handful of weeks away from his 26th birthday, while Utah Valley backups Zach Nelson (25) and Isaac Neilson (25) trail him by a matter of months.

Utah Valley coach Mark Pope specifically targeted age and experience in building his third-year roster. The Wolverines (7-4) of the WAC are loaded with transfer players — eight from other D-Is and five more from junior colleges.

“I didn’t know we’d go exactly this way when I took this job, but I actually like it,” said Pope, whose team went 17-17 last year and reached the CBI semifinals. “I dig our locker room. We call ourselves Second Chance U. We kind of have a crooked-past crew. Nobody took a straight (path here). Very few of my guys grew up dreaming of playing their basketball in Orem, Utah. But all of my guys love the fact that they’re here right now and are excited about what we can try to prove and accomplish.”

UVU subjected itself to perhaps the toughest 24 hours of any team in the nation when it faced top-five squads Kentucky and Duke on their home floors the first two days of the season. The Wolverines acquitted themselves in both games, hanging with the blue bloods before faltering late, including 73-63 against UK.

This is UH’s last test before the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, and it’s a sizable one.

“They put a lot of pressure on you at both ends, particularly offensively,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “This is a team … shooting (nearly) 50 percent from the field. They’ve been one of the highest up-tempo teams in the country the last couple years (81.3 ppg). They have a really good point guard in Brandon Randolph, from Xavier. They have shooting around him and an inside threat. And their depth’s good.”

That inside presence — likely the best UH has faced this season — is personified in 7-foot senior center Akolda Manyang, a former Oklahoma reserve who reached the Final Four with the Sooners. He’s anchored UVU at both ends with 15.3 points on 67 percent shooting, with 9.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game.

Manyang played nine minutes off the bench in then-No. 3 Oklahoma’s 84-81 thriller over UH in the 2015 Diamond Head semifinals. He was 2-for-2 from the field for four points with two rebounds and two blocks.

Now he’s backed up by UVU’s elder statesmen Nelson and Neilson, who are shooting better than 73 percent off the bench.

The Wolverines are coming off a 106-44 rout of non-NCAA team Bethesda, in which UVU set records for field goals made (44) and assists (35).

While UVU gets double-figure scoring from each starter, UH (6-2) has turned to its bench to bolster a sometimes sputtering first five.

Veteran guard Brocke Stepteau (9.4 ppg) is shooting a remarkable 65.7 percent from the field. He’s a big reason why UH has received at least 25 points from its bench in each of the last six games.

“Our bench is strong,” Stepteau said. “When people come on, replace the starters, our goal is to keep the same level of intensity … so there’s really no drop-off.

“A lot of times, when teams go to their bench, it’s a little bit weaker, so that’s when we feel like we can capitalize and continue the same push we had and the same play we had.”